


Chrollo's Game

by KiraraNeko



Category: Hunter X Hunter, hxhbb18 - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gore, Graphic Violence, HxHBB18, M/M, Underage - Freeform, canon triggers from btoom! and hxh, hxhbb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-04-27 09:02:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14422035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiraraNeko/pseuds/KiraraNeko
Summary: Following a game ad developed by the Phantom Troupe, Kurapika finally has a lead on the monsters who took everything away from him. The game was called Btoom! The same one Kurapika was so disinterested in when he first saw it advertised. Now, however, he was going to hunt down the company and kill the developers.That was the plan until he wakes the next night to discover himself trapped on an island. With only a pack of explosives and a sensor chip implanted in his hand to protect himself against people who wanted to kill each other! Shocking as that was, Kurapika quickly learns that he is in the game of Btoom! The same one that was taking up the crazed nation of his world, only this time it was undeniably real.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> [Btoom! AU] a crossover  
> *Btoom! is a manga/anime series about a survival game on a remote island. A supposedly harmless video game called Btoom! is recreated in real life. Known to the people in the anime as an rpg game where you take out players with bombs called bims and a tracking device in one’s hand, the recreation of the game to real life is kept secret from the public. So the players, random civilians disowned by their loved ones through the btoom developers, have to kill one another by a set of rules to win the game and go home without help from the outside world.  
> This fic was beta-ed by wasp-that-never-misses (his tumblr). He was what made this fic possible to understand. Thank you!

“Ah!” Kurapika yelped when the blast from behind him went off, and several screams were viciously halted. He stopped running and balanced precariously on his branch, turning quickly south to see the explosion.

He was breathing hard, eyes wide as his heart raced in time with the adrenaline running through his veins. A burst of red and orange flames filled his vision, the flames reminding him oddly of flowers.

Kurapika felt his fingers twitch.

_Damn it._

Before he could think of another line of thought, the burst of heat from the blast rushed at Kurapika and forced him to turn away to continue on. Like a savior telling him he had to leave no matter what and keep himself alive.

Cursing under his breath, he let the heat push him forward like an impatient hand, swallowing the guilt of failing to help those people when he could, and leapt through the high trees of the island.

The trees and the choking smoke blurred around him as he moved fast, trying to put as much distance as he could from him and his pursuers. Pursuers, because that was the next thing to think about after the fallen. It was a necessity to keep moving, to keep thinking ahead.

To not feel guilt.

He was thinking of that feeling a whole lot since being on the island, however, and Kurapika didn't think the heavy thoughts would go away anytime-

The smoke was clogging, and laughter sounded from the trees in front of him. Shielding his eyes from the sudden thickness of the smoke in dulled alarm, his breathing hitched and he twisted his heel on the tree he landed on to leap back in the previous one.

Crouching low, Kurapika cursed once more under his breath as he tried to stay still. How could they have found him so quickly? He knew he had left first before the explosion hit, so there should have been no way they could catch up to him. Unless...

He veered off back _toward_ the explosion by accident, most likely disoriented by the suddenness of the blast. When he realized this through the cobwebs of his mind to be true, he widened his eyes and growled at himself. It wasn't easy admitting to oneself that they were too sleepy to stay sharp about one’s surroundings.

The sound of human voices was loud in the night air in front of him. Soon after, the speakers revealed themselves from behind the foliage.

And maybe it was the exhaustive state of Kurapika’s mind or the pain from the day’s brutal events, but Kurapika just _felt_ his body sag into itself when he saw the newcomers’ faces.

There were four adults and one kid. As the rumors he’d been hearing from different players foretold, these people looked normal, but Kurapika could feel an underlying level of power from these guys; perhaps claiming themselves to be the strongest players of the game hadn’t been a lie.

And to throw more proof at him, two of them wore six or more white pouches strapped to their waists. He wasn't too mind-dulled to know what _that_ meant.

 _Crap_ thought Kurapika with a sudden drop in his stomach. _Considering the dozen bims in one case, to have that many pouches...God, altogether they have an endless supply._

Each one holding a high potency of death. He bet some of those bims were missing now, helped by their owners in splattering their neighbors’ bodies across the island.

Kurapika saw the leaves around him shudder in the sudden wind like it didn't like the actions of the people below him any more than he did.

“Yo, stop going so slow, will ya? We gotta find camp for the night.”

The sound of the deep voice sent Kurapika reflexively hunkering closer to the branch he was on, releasing a slow exhale of nerves as he did so. The tree’s branches were adequate in keeping him covered, but he ended up praying to the sun that neither of his enemies looked up.

Kurapika did not feel ready to fight due to the fatigue partially overcoming him at the moment. He’d been running since yesterday morning, having been too comfortable with a little girl wanting to team up with him so many hours ago. He should have listened to his gut when it told him she was going to follow Chrollo’s rules like everyone else. He should have guessed when she was too willing to share information about the type of bims she carried and the five chips she had.

_“I've got five of them, Mr. How ‘bout you?”_

_“Just the one already in my hand. So, are you saying you killed four people to get those?”_

_“Who me? Of course not. I took them off the already dead ones.”_

 But, Kurapika didn't know she was lying then, and he barely got away from her alive. Unconsciously, his hand moved to curl around his side where the large puncture wound still smarted. It took up almost all of his medical supplies, and not to mention the food he had to consume to keep up his energy during the painful ordeal.

He felt anger at the girl for what she tried to do, but like her, he’d done what she wanted to do to him. He took her five chips and her bims and fled. It was disgusting, what he’d had to do to survive, and he didn't even want to think of it now, but added to his own chip, he now had six of them. One more equaled seven. And after that, the chance to kill the people who wronged his people.

The deep voiced man who spoke was turned to his friends, eyes narrowed at the playful banter they were holding up. Besides him, the kid in the group was silent too, almost bored, as he stared off into the night like he cared nothing for the people he was walking beside.

Then they stopped directly underneath Kurapika’s tree.

_The Hell!?_

_Do they know I'm up here?_

Kurapika stiffened up, feeling his bones tighten to near pain as he waited fearfully for their next move.

Then the deep-voiced man spoke.

“Didn't you all hear me before? I _said_ we had to find _camp.”_

 _“_ So what?” asked the only female in the group. “You want us to not celebrate our fiftieth something kill this week? We’re practically raining in chips!”

“Yeah,” piped up a man with a mop of blond hair and a farmer’s stomach. “Did you _see_ the look on their faces when they saw us holding up our bims? They should have pissed themselves!” He roared.

Kurapika must have made a sound because then he was looking straight into the suspicious gaze of the youngest member.

_Oh, God..._

He was frozen, not breathing at all as his heart beat in time with the milliseconds of an imaginary clock.

The boy, however, didn't do anything but stare. Hands leisurely in his pockets, bim pouch lying against his hip, and his chip glinting in the peeking moonlight above them. It shined the smooth green surface as if it were an emerald, shaped like an oval sunk into the back of his right hand.

With his shock of fluffy white hair and bright blue eyes, Kurapika somehow felt he wasn't that dangerous, and realized to his mild alarm that his body had already relaxed.

The boy wasn't about to give away his location...yet.

“That right there is what will get you killed, Jroom,” a tall man with glasses said. He pushed them up, continuing the conversation from before. “We can't just allow ourselves to boast so much about getting ahead in this game. Have you heard the word, karma?”

The blond man, Jroom, frowned at him and started to speak, but the woman beat him to the punch.

She shoved him out of the way, so she could snarl into the glasses man’s face. Her green eyes were hard as stone. “Hell, with that kind of talk, _of course_ we’d get in trouble! You're jinxing us right now with your dumb talk about karma!”

“Hey!”  Jroom shouted in surprised anger at being pushed.

Both of them ignored him.

Glasses man glared at the woman, but she jerked her head to him with a look of utter steel. Kurapika could tell there was something more than the argument they were warring over, something more on a personal level, but as he was trying to work it out in his head, the deep-voiced man grunted loudly to clear the atmosphere and gain everyone’s attention.

“None of your superstitions are going to help us now,” he said gruffly. He gave them all a beady-eyed look. Even the kid side-long glanced him, having long ignored Kurapika’s presence.

“Now, right now we need to find camp. And _not_ cause attention to ourselves by yelling at each other, kapeesh?”

This somewhat calmed the members down, but Kurapika noticed the blond one’s scowl.

The man with glasses turned to the other man and pushed the lens up the bridge of his nose.

“Gade, there are at least a thousand players on this island, considering the fifty people we try to get to by the end of the day, for the two weeks we’ve been here that's been over 600 people we’ve killed already.”

Despite understanding this to likely be true for these people, knowing of the rumors, Kurapika felt sick. _Over_ _six hundred!?_ He thought in bewilderment.

All of those people killed for nothing... Kurapika gripped the branch underneath him hard, so that the pain from the jagged edges bit into his skin. _Yes, Kurapika. Imagine this pain filling all of those innocent people. Imagine it a million times worse._

He glared angrily at the murderers underneath him, seeing the past. Gade became Chrollo, his voice turning sleek and business-like as he badgered his friends. The rest of them were the other members. Feitan as the glasses man, Machi as the woman, Shalnark as the blue-eyed boy, and Phinks as Jroom. His gaze blurred and he started to breathe too fast, too heavy.

 _Nononononono..._ He couldn't stop chanting in his head. Every thought and thing in sight seemed to freeze, and he started to stand.

“We should make more of an effort to speed things up while the pickings are easy.” continued the oblivious Feitan. There are other people with the same idea as us, you know.”

Before Kurapika could move, the sound of another voice spoke. It sounded like a balm on his hate, a cool water running over his seething mind. It calmed him almost instantly, despite its obviously rude tone.

“ _Or,”_ It said impatiently. _“_ We could just hurry up and kill all the rest of them, _tonight,_ so we can all go home and stop wasting damn time.”. Kurapika blinked back to reality, realizing he was half-crouched.

Chrollo was grinning at Phinks. “Chill, kid. We ain't got your kind of otherworldly super strength, ok? We knows you're an assassin, and all, but the rest of us are normal citizens.” He laughed. The boy was giving him a bored but calculated stare.

Quickly, Kurapika squated back in his position of hiding. He was gritting his teeth in self-disgust at what he was about to do. If that kid hadn't spoken when he did...

“Ha! Look at that expression, Gade.” The woman grinned. “You got him mad!”

Kurapika looked reluctantly back at the people below him, the images of the troupe members slowly vanishing.

They were normal people again. And his current threat. Not _them._ Not yet.

Kurapika took a slow and shaking breath, trying to relieve the tension in his body as he watched his enemies.

The boy was still giving the deep-voiced man a look of annoyance, then it completely changed like magic. The boy grinned, eyes slanted his way coyly. It surprised everyone watching.

_He looks like a cat about to pounce on his next meal. A very sarcastic one._

_“_ I take it you _don’t_ want to leave this place then?” he said in amusement.

Gade started like he’d been electrocuted physically by the boy.

The woman near him began to laugh again, this time at the bewildered man’s expression.

Gade quickly glared over at her.

She giggled. “The shrimp’s right, Gade. We gotta get going before we wanna go home anytime soon.”

“That's essentially what _I_ said,” snarled the man with the glasses.

The woman just ignored him.

“Wow, we have another realist in the house,” piped up Jroom. The woman turned to whack his head. “Back off, Farmer boy!”

They started to move then, the woman and Jroom bickering along the way, and Kurapika watching them disappear into the trees. He released a slow release of breath.

_Ok. They're gone now, so I should-_

Kurapika stopped thinking, staring at the youngest member standing still at the edge of the main forest.

He hadn't gone with them, now looking up at Kurapika with those iridescent blue eyes of his.

Kurapika couldn't move from fear of him calling out to his friends, but, instead of yelling the boy smirked and turned around to vanish with the others.

Kurapika felt his body slump against the tree trunk he was hugging, all of his everything seeming to fall with him in exhaustion.

So, those people _weren't_ trying to pursue him after all, only looking for a safe place to rest for another day.

The wind picked up suddenly, shoving the familiar smells of smoke and blood up to his nose. Kurapika wrinkled it and sighed heavily as he slumped against the tree, hungry, hurt, and most of all, tired.

He figured he would have gotten caught that time. Especially with that white-haired boy. Kurapika thought about how strong they looked and felt. He had to make an effort to stay away from those people from then on. He wasn’t trying to die anytime soon. Not yet. A flash of Chrollo’s face came to his mind, but vanished quickly, as if teasing Kurapika with his promise. He gulped hard in stifled anger. What use was it now to get angry?

He fell asleep to the gory lullaby of distant screams.


	2. Chapter 2

...

“Don’t touch that if you still want your fingers attached,” spoke a low clear voice. It reached all the way to where Kurapika stood five feet away. Confused, Kurapika blinked at his surroundings before resting on the people before him. He was in a low ceilinged room, dark and suffocating as if someone kept all the doors and windows shut, except there was no doors or windows to close. And it was cold, yet the people sitting at the two long tables across from him were coatless and relaxed, surrounding five computers sitting on its white surfaces.

What happened? How did he end up inside a building when he was outside a moment ago? A loud slap reverberated in the room, startling Kurapika. “Ow!” cried one of the people. 

“I told you not to touch it.” 

The computers were the only light in the room, and as Kurapika stepped forward to call out to the people, he noticed the dark stains on the walls. He halted with a sudden leap in his chest.  _ Those stains...they’re blood!  _

And what was worse than that fact, was the absolute certainty that they were his people’s, the Kurta. And if that was the Kurta’s blood splattered on the walls, then the people in front of him were...

Kurapika’s stomach began to churn with apprehension and anger. He turned, his mind livid, and glared at the troupe members before him. After so long, he found them. He didn’t know how, but there they were, hunched over computers like there was nothing else in the world.

And Kurapika was about to make sure it stayed that way. He locked his gaze on the leader, Chrollo, sitting at the nearest computer and typing away. Kurapika could see clearly what he was doing, he was developing the Btoom! game. The island they were on was large and vivid on the screen, like a video game, and regular people walked around on it.

Kurapika, however, didn't care enough to think that was weird or important to know. He took a step forward, squishing something under his foot with an audible popping sound. Startled, he yanked it away and glanced down to see a red eye, shaped in a bloody white puddle where his foot had been.

He raised his eyes and noticed more all over the place. There seemed to be a million.  _ A whole clan full. _

Kurapika screamed in his mind, pulling back quickly from them.

Chrollo turned at the sound, unfortunately, and looked mildly surprised at seeing him.

“Ah,” he said conversationally. “And how did you get in here?”

Kurapika quickly regained his composure, and stood in a threatening position, a snarl on his lips. “You!” he yanked out his old staff. “I’ll kill you for what you did to my clan!”

He started to rush at him but was immediately blocked by two forms.Their own weapons made an X in front of him, effectively keeping him from getting near the man sitting with his legs splayed and unconcerned. Kurapika growled.

The one on the right, Feitan, crinkled his eyes as he grinned behind a wide dark collar. “Oh, no you don’t, kid.” 

“Let me through,” Kurapika said heatedly. The one on the left spoke up. Kurapika knew her name to be Shizuku. “We don’t know who you are,” she said evenly. “ but you are not about to hurt Chrollo.”

The woman looked determined, her purple eyes narrowed on Kurapika. The look contrasted with the vacuum cleaner she held in her hands for a weapon.

“Kill him.” Chrollo’s voice floated to them as a cool wind, and Kurapika looked over at him with hate, before his people began to move.

They were fast, but Kurapika was too full of deep rancor for the people before him that when his hand shot out to grab the nearest one’s throat, he did not hesitate to start squeezing the life from him. The head of the woman’s hit his chest with a hollow thump, and he tightened on her further, ignoring the gagging she was letting loose and focused on the halted men in front of him.

“Move, and I kill her.” he turned to Chrollo. “You may not remember me, but I am part of the Kurta clan you ruthlessly destroyed seven years ago. And I won’t let  _ any  _ of you live for it!”

As if to taunt Kurapika’s anger, Chrollo smiled pleasantly, as if being polite but not knowing a thing he was telling him.

“But?” he asked Kurapika. Kurapika blinked, not expecting such a response. He was looking for confirmation or recognition of his claim or at least verbal concern for one of his members. What was “But?” supposed to mean? It just made Kurapika angrier.

“ _ But,”  _ He said with narrowed eyes. “I want to know why you killed them without any remorse. Didn't you think of us as people? Have you no remorse for what you did!?” He raised his voice to a near shout at the members, his grip tightening convulsively on Shizuku’s neck.

Her gagging turned into wheezing, and Kurapika could feel her weight slump. The others gave her a quick glance, the closest they were to concern for someone, and looked back to Kurapika more warily than before. 

He couldn’t stop the tears from coming, filled with an overwhelming sense of grief for his loved ones, but that did not stay his hand on his captive. She was the only thing keeping him alive right now, or else he would have been just like that eyeball he stepped on earlier. Crushed into the ground. He was still sane enough to know  _ that. _

Chrollo grinned suddenly, startling Kurapika. “What?” 

“Have you ever played my new game,” he said. “Btoom?”

_ What!? _

Kurapika blinked and growled out a response. “I don't care about-”

“It's the troupe’s first and only one. I assume you already know of the hype it caused-”

“What the Hell does that have to do with-”

“And it’s continuation to interest the masses.” Chrollo continued on like Kurapika hadn’t interrupted him. “Everyone is playing it now, and we get billions from its success.”

The girl in Kurapika’s arms tried to take a big breath of air, but Kurapika clamped her mouth shut. More to irritate the story man than keep her from breathing. Feitan and the other troupe members beside Chrollo went stiff. Chrollo did nothing about it.

“Stop, talking about-” started Kurapika once more, but again Chrollo spoke.

“And we’ve only released it this morning.”

This stopped Kurapika in his tracks, his mind momentarily forgetting what he was saying to compute his words.

Chrollo’s grin was like a crocodile’s. A polite one.

Kurapika snarled at him, hate rushing to his head like the adrenaline pumping through his body. He was playing  _ games  _ with him!

“Don’t fool around with me,” Kurapika said in a low voice. “I  _ will  _ kill you-”

Chrollo interrupted him again. “You are right,” he said. “I’m kidding, after all. We released our product a month ago, but, you wouldn’t have noticed that with so many followers, would you?”

The only thing Kurapika noticed was the fact that the troupe members were still alive. And he wanted them dead.

“I don’t care about your stupid game!” he yelled. In a fit of rage Kurapika finally snapped, and crushed the last remaining life of the girl in his arms. 

_ Well, that’s just great!  _ Kurapika thought unhappily. He dropped the now-lifeless girl. Chrollo, however, had begun to laugh, and everyone turned to stare, including Kurapika.

“Why are you laughing!? I just killed one of your members!” Suddenly, Kurapika felt a hard hit to his stomach, and he flew backward several feet against a wall. When his back crushed against it, he was already out of breath. “ _ Oof, _ ” he wheezed and slumped in a sitting position. 

He could barely move as he felt the troupe walk toward him, winking in and out of consciousness.This wasn’t supposed to be happening to him. He was supposed to be stronger than this. One hit should  _ not  _ have hurt him this bad.

_ Damn,  _ When did he get so weak?

Chrollo gazed down at him in his signature fur-lined hooded coat and a disdainful look. He smiled down at him. That was when Kurapika saw the glint of a knife in his hand, and his eyes locked on it in horror.

“The last Kurta does not care for my game?” he asked snidely. “That is fine, there is another I’d like for you to try out instead. It's the perfect remake. Oh yeah, and lest I forget,” he added as if speaking as an afterthought. He crouched before him to caress his face with his free hand. His grey eyes were part playful and part menacing.

Kurapika felt the dread fill in his chest, and he didn’t lose contact with the knife in his hand. Even when the knife reared so the point lined with Kurapika’s left eye, and Chrollo let out his next words:

_ “It would be my honor to take your eyes as well!” _

His nasty grin was the only thing he saw before he blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

...

Kurapika jolted awake and stared at the light blue sky in a pained daze. He was drenched in sweat, and his breathing was erratic as his heart. His hand quickly reached up to his eyes, relieved both were still on his face. 

_ It was a dream, after all. _

A light wind blew against him, and he sat up. His body felt heavy and the old pains from before came back to him full force. 

He nearly fell off the tree he was on. What the heck!? He thought, looking around him. How did he get up here!? 

Before he could figure out why or what had happened, he heard voices below him. Surprised, Kurapika quickly went into alert-mode and covered more securely in his hiding spot. He searched his area for signs of the owner’s voices and spotted them in the distance, maybe ten feet west from his tree. He felt apprehension at the power they were emitting. It was too unreal.

There were six of them, five surrounding the fifth one. The fifth one was a kid, talking up a storm, but he didn’t feel weak at all.

Looking closer, he saw that the people surrounding him were the same ones whom he thought were pursuing him last night, and that reminded him why he was in the tree.

He stared in bewilderment at Gade and the others, and his eyes quickly landed on the white-haired boy. He didn’t know why, but he barely felt any power coming from him. Just as the first time, but this seemed to be even fainter. The others were as big as before, but the fifth one, the fifth one’s power overshadowed everyone’s.

That must have been what woke him up, but, if that was the case and he was stronger than the people currently around him, why was he not fighting? And why did Kurapika feel the sudden thought that he was about to die?

“And that’s how I got this apple,” he finished explaining. His voice was bubbly and happy, so in contrast to Kurapika’s world that it was like an insult. 

Gade and his friends never even cracked a smile, and then Kurapika noticed the bims in their hands.

_ Because,  _ Kurapika thought to himself, referring to his questions.  _ Despite his large aura, The Assassination Squad have more people. _

The kid was grinning at the older people and the other kid his age as if they were old friends, finished telling a story about some food he found on the beach. He chomped away at his apple, watching the man who asked him with great curiosity. To Kurapika, it seemed he was ignoring the fact that everyone was holding their bims since he’d begun his story. He imagined the boy getting killed easily and wondered how he survived on the island for so long.

Kurapika’s stomach dropped for the kid’s safety.

_ Someone who is so simple-minded will definitely get himself killed. _

Jroom grinned when he was done, and the one wearing glasses pushed them up on his nose with another smile. Kurapika’s stomach fell further.

“That,” he said in amusement. “wasn’t meant to be answered, kid.” 

“This one’s yours, Erene,” Gade spoke again, nodding to the woman beside him. She swiftly moved to stand behind the kid.

The boy started and turned his head slightly to the right as the woman pressed her hand to his back, and swiftly moved back to her spot beside the man.

She smiled sweetly at him, and Kurapika feared the worst before she spoke again. “Goodbye, little cutie,”

Kurapika stood fast to move, turning on his heel just as the bim on the kid’s back set off.

The world exploded with pain and fire.

“ _ Urgh! _ ” Kurapika grunted as he was propelled by the heat of the blast to another tree, just missing its deadly branches before it caught his body. He reached out, however, to grab one of them before he flung too far away, and curled around it as the explosion rolled over him. It was deafening, throwing off his senses for several minutes before the area cleared once more and he saw what was happening.

The members of The Assassination Squad had been luckier than he, for they moved several feet back before the blast erupted. They stood in their respective trees, casually watching the middle of the clearing and unhurt. Kurapika, breathing hard, was doing the same.

The boy should not have made out of that alive. There were smoke and the smell of blood everywhere, and when it cleared-

Kurapika widened his eyes, his breath stilling. He gazed at the crouched form where a puddle of smattered blood was supposed to be, staring in disbelief at the kid who still stood in his spot. He was crouched low in a defensive position, and his eyes were the only things on fire. He was mad, to say the least.

_ How did he... _

Everyone froze, staring at the badly burnt and bleeding boy. Jroom looked from him to the white-haired boy. Kurapika could tell by his face that he was stumped as to where such high-powered kids came from.

“Hey,” the white-haired boy spoke for the first time since Kurapika woke up. His expression was calm and cool, but there was a slight interest in the blue of his eyes. Maybe even approval. Which was weird, because even from where Kurapika stood ten feet away, he could feel the menacing aura rising from the young boy. The others seemed to feel it too. They kept cutting their eyes to him warily, and back to the kid below them. Like they didn’t know who the real threat was, though they were as shocked about the boy living as he and Kurapika.

“How’d you do that?” he stood with his hands in his pockets like always, on the branch of a tree across from the boy. The boy looked up at him, then, his serious look never wavering.

Jroom spoke up, his voice holding a tremor of fear in it. “He killed her...”

“What the Hell,” shouted Gade from his own tree to the left. “Who the Hell are you!”

The boy straightened, wincing only slightly to indicate he was in any pain.

“That wasn’t very nice,” he said angrily. “And now your friend is dead. Do you see now why you need to stop?” 

Kurapika and the others gave him an incredulous look.  _ What!?  _ Who said stuff like that here? And with such a serious face! Yet, the boy did not look anything but determined, his brown eyes staring directly into the white-haired boy’s as if issuing a challenge. The other boy frowned.

Gade grinned grimly and spoke in the drawn-out silence.

“And who the Hell was it that killed Erene, huh? You should eat your own words kid!” Then he grinned wider, but Kurapika was still on the part where he said the boy killed Erene. Kurapika honestly forgot about her the moment he saw the boy through all that smoke.

But, how did that happen? Kurapika stared at the back of the boy’s head. Did he really move that quick to take the bim off him and put it on the woman? Because that was the only explanation, not considering the impossibility of it.

_ He has to be a real match to mess with. _

“But, hey,” Gade’s voice made Kurapika snap his head up, continuing his conversation with the boy.

“A strong player like you shouldn't have to fight all alone out here.” He thumbed to the boy in the tree beside him, who didn’t react at all. “We got another kid your age you can play with and everythin’. I’ll tell you what I told Erene when we offered her to join, we’ll help you get your chips, all seven O’ them, and in return, you help us take out the weak.”

Kurapika narrowed his eyes at him, his fingers digging into the bark he held tightly in his fist. He sounded just like a troupe member. “So, that was  _ you _ guys killing so many people,” growled the boy. “But they were innocent! Some of them were just kids!”

“Are you stupid boy-” began Gade, but the white-haired boy spoke up again, cutting him off.

“This is a  _ survival game,  _ dummy. And I'm sure you heard it as well as we all did when that freak with the cross on his forehead told you how to play it.”

The other boy shouted at him. “So what if I did? What does that change about those people you murdered!?”

Jroom decided to chime in. “Ugh,” he said in disgust. “Murderer” is such an ugly word. It makes me feel like I ain't no farmer no more. But, who  _ cares  _ what we’re called now?”

He opened his arms wide, smiling hugely. It made Kurapika shiver with dread.

“In this world,  _ no one  _ can tell us what to do. This island has no rules,  _ but  _ to kill! Why should we be labeled for doing what we’re supposed to do?”

_ What the Hell!? _

_ That's exactly why we shouldn’t kill! _

“That dude told us how to play the game,” continued Jroom. “And we playin it!”

The boy looked astonished, staring at Jroom, before turning his head slowly to look at the other four. He seemed to realize who he was dealing with by the way his features changed from determination to dismay. “You don’t care about her at all, do you? You don’t care about anyone.”

“You get it now, pipsqueak?” asked the man in glasses. He was giving the boy a disapproving look, not helped by the little round ball he clicked in his hand. 

_ Oh crap! _

Kurapika forced himself to move this time, to call out to the boy because he just  _ knew  _ he couldn't dodge another hit, but was too late as the bim sailed at the boy.

The boy tried to move out of the way, but the beeping ball hit his arm and blew up.

There was no way the boy could get away.

_ “Ahhh!”  _ Kurapika heard him scream as the air turned orange with another blast. He had to hold on tight to his tree once again as the explosion rocked his body back.

“Ha ha!” Cried Gade when the smoke finally cleared to reveal the boy, lying on the ground and bleeding, unconscious. Maybe even dead.

_ Why didn't I move in time to help him!?  _ Kurapika thought in bewilderment and self-disgust as he stared down at the silent boy.

So full of life one moment, and gone the next.

Without another thought or glance at their victim, the group of monsters leaped down from their trees. Gade was smiling big.

“We got him!” he said. “Now we can go after that other one-”

“No, we can’t.” The white-haired boy interrupted. He had made his way over to the boy’s fallen form and was now looking down at him with an indifferent look.

“This boy is still covering the area with his nen. He isn't completely dead.”

_ Nen?  _ What was that? Another word for aura? Thought Kurapika as he watched them carefully. Obviously, they were there for a reason different from their usual killing sprees. The question was, who were they looking for?

“ _ Ugh!”  _ exclaimed Gade, and kicked a rock nearby him. It whistled through the trees like a thrown baseball, chunking a piece out of a trunk before landing. Kurapika inwardly winced, reminded just how strong the people below him were. 

“How many times are we gonna go through this!?  _ You  _ said-”

“I said what?” the white-haired boy asked dangerously, turning to glare at Gade behind him. Despite being twice his size and carrying an impressive amount of aura, the boy held a hundred times more, and Gade seemed to shrink in on himself when he glanced at him.

“You keep telling us you feel his presence around here, but every time we follow you, something gets in the way!” Gade gritted out angrily. “If you can’t hold up your end of the bargain, finding your little sissy will be out of the question. And you dead.”

Someone snickered in the group, but Kurapika was too focused on the boy’s face to care.

He was scowling, still looking down on the raven-haired boy. Kurapika looked too and noticed for the first time the arm that was definitely supposed to be blown off by the blast.

The sleeve was gone completely, but his right arm was whole.

_ Impossible!  _

Kurapika felt alarmed at the boy’s endurance. No one should have been able to withstand that blast with both arms still attached, yet-

“He’s amazing, isn’t he?” asked the glasses man, bending down to look at the boy.

“Not even human.”

Gade looked up then, like a predator sensing prey, and turned the opposite way of Kurapika. “I feel him over there, guys! That brat’s mine now!” he took off toward the tree line, laughing along the way.

“Hey!” shouted Jroom. The glasses man was looking just as pissed. “That doofus knows...”

He turned to look at the white-haired boy. “Hey, Killua,” the boy looked away from the other one with a little reluctance it seemed to Kurapika. “What?” he asked.

“We gotta go after Gade. He thinks the blonde kid is on the run again.”

Kurapika didn’t know for sure, but it seemed like the boy, Killua, snatched a look to where he hid in his tree, but it was a fast action, and it could have just been his paranoia getting to him.

He still felt the feeling, however, alarmed at the maybe-attention.

“Yeah, ok,” Killua said to the glasses man. Thankfully, the two older men were already turned to go after Gade when Kurapika thought he looked over at him, so he was still safe.

The three remaining group of The Assassination Squad ran after their team member. Only when they were far away from the area did Kurapika release the tension in his shoulders, and he turned his attention to the unconscious boy on the ground.

Dropping down from the tree, Kurapika moved swiftly toward him and knelt by his side. Up close the boy was banged up really bad, his clothes suffering the worse. His bim pouch was torn, but whole on his person. 

_ Incredible,  _ Kurapika was feeling his pulse and it was beating weakly, but not as weak as it probably should have after getting blown up nearly twice in a row.  _ And stupid. Why didn’t he just run away?  _ Kurapika thought, and dropped his hand. 

“You,” he said with a sigh. “may be the stupidest boy I’ve ever met.”

He shook his head suddenly, picked the boy up in his arms, and began to move.

He couldn’t believe what he was going to do next, but he couldn’t just leave the kid.


	4. Chapter 4

Gon woke to the sound of deafening rushing water and began to feel panic when something wet and stark-cold pressed against his forehead. He started to cry out in surprise, and the hollow ice-block feeling in his chest jumped to life. He coughed out blood.

“Don’t move too much,” a soft voice said near him. “Actually, don’t move at all. You have pulmonary bleeding.”

“Pulmo-what?” he asked before pain lanced through him and out of his mouth again, big globs of blood on the ground. He shivered when it was over, trying hard not to blackout.

He heard the voice sigh while he stared at the spinning stars in the sky.

“Sorry,” it said. “I meant your lungs are bleeding out. It’s best if you stay still. And don’t talk.” the tone added in implication of what just occurred.

Gon finally looked up to see a woman filling a water bottle in the fall beside them-the source of the rushing water. The woman was tall and wore her blond hair short. Her clothes were weird: a blue rug-like cloth over an all-white attire. On her hip, she wore the standard pouch of bims and the green chip on the back of her left hand, but she also had two pieces of long wood attached by a string secured at the side of her waist. They looked like a goofy pair of nunchucks. However, despite the weird clothes and the nunchucks, she gave off a prince-like feel. Gon immediately liked her.

The only thing was, _why_ did her aura feel similar to that boy he’d been protecting earlier?

Like a shockwave, alarm shuddered through Gon. _That boy!_

The woman turned a sharp eye on him when he started to get up.

“Here,” she said evenly and pulled the water bottle out of the water. “Let me put this back on your chest. It’ll help slow the blood loss.” she pressed the bottom to his body and forced him back down. It felt extremely cold.

“M-my bloodlust?” Gon chattered, lying tensely on something that elevated his chest. He just realized it was there. And his clothes were...not.

“Gah!” he exclaimed. “Where are my clothes!?”

The woman, however, was giving him a worried look and ignored his remark.

“You must have tinnitus,” she was muttering. “but since you can still hear me it must be in one ear.”

He could barely hear her. “What?” then he smiled at her. She seemed surprised to see that. “You’re really smart,” Gon explained. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The woman glared at him. “I said stay _still,_ And don’t talk either.”

Gon was trying to raise up again if only to get more comfortable with the thing underneath him. He growled, feeling punches of pain as he moved, but ignoring it. “What’s under me!?” he said.

With that, he coughed up blood again, this time since he was sitting up it went on the woman’s shirt.

“Oh, Gods!” cried the woman. Gon was too busy shuddering in intense pain to really care.

“Sorry,” he said brokenly, watching her in winking lights as she proceeded to wipe some of it off her face with an already blood-soaked cloth.

Was that his shirt?

“No,” the woman breathed. “You’re fine. I’m literally more surprised you can still breathe _and_ have the strength to move after that ordeal. And you nearly blew up twice!” she added with a sort of amazement in her tone.

Despite his pain, Gon grinned. He didn’t have the heart to tell her he almost blew up over ten times since he woke up on the island.

“and you’re lying on two rocks.” added the woman. “I needed to make sure you didn’t choke on your own blood.”

“My name is Gon,” Gon said, straightening. He was mindful of his lungs, however, as they were bleeding and very painful. “What’s yours?”

The woman gave him a weird look, but instead of answering, she thrust her hand out and shoved his shoulder back on the rocks. His back smacked into the raised bit behind him and he let out a yelp of surprised pain. He erupted out more blood.

“Huh.” said the woman. “By your constant chatter I imagined you weren’t feeling much pain, but you’re still weak.” Her stony expression narrowed. “I’m not finished treating you, and you’re not going to hinder my progress. We got too much shit to get through for all that.”

The woman picked up the fallen water bottle off the grass then and pressed in back on Gon’s chest wordlessly. Gon was surprised and a little afraid of the woman’s ruthlessness. However, he knew the woman only behaved this way because of how the game changed her to be. ‘Being ruthless in such a brutal situation is only one of the many facets one needed to survive in the game’. It was one of the things Gon remembered the developers tell him before he was given a sleeping pill. He kept his mouth closed for the woman, allowing her to continue her ministrations. Five minutes later, she spoke up.

“My name is Kurapika,” she said in a low voice. “I’m on a mission to hunt the developers of this game.”

She gripped Gon’s hand then, pulling it to the bottle on the right side of his chest. “Hold this here.”

Gon did as he was told.

The woman started to shred some cloth next to him. Gon couldn’t see it from his vantage point. “Ever since we were dropped here, though, I haven’t seen any sign of them. However, I don’t intend to give up.” She held up the strips, comparing their sizes. Gon wondered where she got the green cloth from, as there was no green on her.

“But, they’re the developers,” Gon said. “They wouldn’t be here.” His punishment for speaking was a throw up of blood. He coughed.

The woman glanced at him with annoyed concern. “I told you not to speak.”

Gon tried to say sorry, pulling in a shuddering breath, but the woman swiftly put a finger to his lips.

Her face was close, her gray eyes dark with something emotional. “I said not to talk, Gon.”

Gon obeyed finally, watching her dip the strips in the water and ring them out. She said nothing else, and after awhile, Gon drifted off to sleep with only one thought in his mind, faint and distant. Something about the clothes.

_Those...she tore them into strips...my favorite clothes Mito gave me...she..._

Gon fell asleep.

...

Gon woke up sometime later at night. He didn’t hear the rushing of water anymore so he knew he wasn’t near a river, but the sound of crackling fire was loud. A bad syrupy taste coated his tongue when he came to full awareness, made worse by the sound of bims and screaming in the distance. Those sounds were always there, of course, but Gon could never become familiar with them. Not ever.

The sound of rustling clothes and soft snoring interrupted his thoughts, and he opened his eyes. It was dark and the stars looked murky behind so much smoke and fire in the air.  _ It will never end, huh? Not until we end up killing every last one of us. _

Disheartened, Gon turned his head away from the madness to stare at Kurapika. She was sitting beside him, with her knees drawn up and her head resting peacefully on her arms.

He smiled at her seemingly innocence and sat up without thinking. When he realized he felt no pain, he looked down at his body and touched his chest.

_ I feel fine! _ He thought in wonderment. Did Kurapika do this?

Gon looked at the woman again. Wow. She was so cool! She fixed him up so well...like a prince!

As he ogled at her prince-like nature, his eyes went up to her hair. By the fire, before them, her blond strands glowed fire gold, and Gon lifted his hand to touch one.

He was only an inch away from touching when she woke up and slapped his hand away.

His hand smarted. “Just because I look asleep,” said Kurapika sharply. “doesn’t mean you have the freedom to try and molest me. I would have thought you had better morals than that.”

Gon was surprised, holding his hand. “I wouldn’t think of doing that!”

Kurapika’s eyes narrowed. “Really? You’re telling me you are not someone who hurts others to gain what they want?”

“Yes!” Gon was appalled. “Aunt Mito never raised me to be a bad person!”

Kurapika just stared at him, and then she laughed. It was a loud relieving laugh, a near-to-tears crack up. By the time she finished, the fire had died down.

“I’m sorry, Gon,” she huffed, out of breath. She wiped a tear from her eye while Gon sat petrified. “You just-that was the most ridiculous response I’ve heard anyone say in a situation like this. It was,” she paused to give it some thought. “Adorable.”

“Um,” said Gon. “Kurapika, you don’t really think I’m trying to hurt you, do you?”

Kurapika looked startled toward him, and then she flitted her eyes away. “You really are dumb, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“We just met, and you are already so comfortable with me that you would allow me to heal you without a single thought as to if I’m really going to kill you or not. You fall asleep and expect me to tend to you like a parent. And even now, as we speak, you do not hold up your guard around me. I don’t understand your simplicity.”

Gon stared at Kurapika, who had not moved from her averted position, as if shy.

Gon frowned. “Kurapika.”

She looked over at him, looking mildly surprised at his serious tone.

Gon didn’t understand everything the woman had said to him, but he knew about keeping an eye on your back all the time. It was stupid for anyone on this island  _ not  _ to. Like that boy from yesterday. He should have known not to sleep in the trees if he had nightmares. It wasn’t safe for him,  _ and  _ he attracted a lot of attention. Gon had saved him by allowing his aura to cover the boy’s so no one could find him, but he didn’t know if he made it out alive. He was blown up before he could signal for him to run.

When he woke up, this woman was helping him.

“Oh!” he suddenly thought of something else and looked at Kurapika. “What's this stuff you put on my tongue? It tastes like honey,”

Kurapika looked at Gon with a certain look, then shook his head with a sigh. “I gave you Vol to help your lungs. It was syrup-flavored, sorry.”

Gon looked slightly uncomfortable, not sure if he wanted someone putting things in his mouth or not, even if it was to help him.

“Thanks?” he said with an uncertain smile.

Kurapika suddenly glared at him.

“More importantly, why did you protect me back there? Why didn’t you run when you had the chance?”

Gon was surprised at the woman’s words. He didn’t remember ever helping her out. He was nearly dead the whole time!

“Uh,” he began, confused. “When was this exactly? I only remember waking up to you working on my lungs.”

Kurapika stared at him. “You don’t remember when those people tried to kill you? Weren’t you helping me buy some time to run?”

Gon thought back to those five bullies that knocked him out, then to the boy in the tree he was helping out. He looked back at the woman, trying hard to understand what she was saying. Because if she knew what was happening in that clearing, but Gon had no idea she was there, then...

Gon’s mind went blank. “S-sorry, I give up. I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I remember is a boy your age hiding in a tree, and these people were hunting him.” Gon shrugged, going back over the memory. “He was asleep and kept crying out every now and then. I remember thinking he was going to fall out of the tree and kill himself, or cry out too loud and attract everyone close by. I was there when I saw those people heading toward him. They looked like bad news, of course, so I followed them to where he was.”

Kurapika was silent after he finished, and Gon chanced a look at her. She was patiently sitting there, angry, Gon could tell, but showing no emotion.

“Gon,” she said sweetly. Gon was a little scared. “Y-yes?” 

“I’m a boy.”

Gon gaped at her-er-him. “What! But, you sound like a wom-” 

“You never told me why you didn’t run when you realized you couldn’t fight them all.”

Gon closed his mouth, his comment interrupted. He just stared at him. No wonder he always thought the woman was like a prince, she was a boy! And the same boy he had tried to save back in that clearing. To think, he actually did something good on this island...

“Gon,” Kurapika said sharply, pulling him out of his thoughts. Gon shook his head and stood to glare down at the boy, ready to tell him his reason for helping.

“It's because” he said determinedly. “I don’t agree to mindlessly killing everyone, especially the innocent. You were sleeping in that tree when they saw you. Did you think I would’ve turned around and run the other way?”

The boy looked shocked, but not as much as the others were when Gon told them. It gave Gon a healthy respect for this person. 

Kurapika was silent for a long moment, thinking. Then he opened his mouth to speak again.

“You are literally the only other person here who believes that killing each other is downright wrong,” he said, almost to himself. “I believe you also think the game is for an ulterior motive than just killing as well?”

Gon blinked at him. “What?”

Kurapika sighed and stood too. He dusted himself off, the green chip in his left hand catching the moonlight high above them. When he turned to look down at Gon, he was smiling.

“Gon,” he said brightly. “How would you like to join me?”


	5. Chapter 5

Gon stared at him, surprised at his forthcoming attitude. “You want to play the game with me?” he asked.

Kurapika’s mouth slightly turned down, but he kept his expression. What he wanted from Gon was more than _playing_ the game. However, that was something he could tell him when they knew more about each other. And when Kurapika knew he could be trusted.

Gon’s confused look turned into a full-on smile, and blinded by it, Kurapika blinked.

“Of course!” he said confidingly.

_What!? Just like that?_

Kurapika couldn’t take this anymore. He punched Gon in the head. “OW!” the younger boy cried out, but Kurapika was too fired up to care.

“Stupid!” he reprimanded him. “It’s like what I told you before went right over your head! You can’t just accept others into your life like that, not when you have no idea of their intentions!”

Gon was holding his head, but he looked up with tears in his eyes to speak. “But, I know your intentions,” he said simply. “You won’t hurt me after saving my life.”

He said it with no doubt in his voice, no wavering conviction. Kurapika stared at him uncomfortably. Why was this kid this way? And what type of person would want him thrown into this kind of place, to begin with?

Kurapika closed his eyes and let out a long sigh, trying to calm himself down. When he opened them again, Gon was staring at the fire.

He was only five foot one, and skinny to top that off, but he fared better than any adult, any six or seven or eight years old out there in this hell hole. Heck, he even got out of two explosions and survived internal bleeding! So, if Kurapika was to get in a skirmish with anyone, he knew he could count on Gon to get himself out. However, he didn’t understand the annoying tug of wanting to protect the boy. That was one of the primary reasons he decided to work with the kid, to keep him close. He seemed too reckless by himself...too trusting of others.

There was a sudden shout, louder than the others Kurapika had grown used to hearing, and the sound of a deadly boom ended it five seconds later. Kurapika could just see over the trees ahead of them the top of a mushroom cloud. The trees were silent afterward until the usual screaming and bombing started up again.

_Tireless, tireless, tireless killing._

Kurapika opened his mouth to call out to Gon. “Gon, let's find shelter-”

“We need to save them, Kurapika.”

Kurapika stopped, staring. “Huh?”

Gon turned around on his heel, brown eyes searing into his.

“We need to save everyone from off this island. We need to make them see that this thing those developers are making us do is not right!”

“Gon, that's not going to change anything-”

“YES, IT WILL!”

Kurapika stiffened at his tone, confused as he stood there panting hard with tears in his eyes.

“Gon...” he was speechless. Did this situation affect him that much? From his personality, Kurapika had thought otherwise, but maybe Gon was just as complex a character as him.

“You have to stop killing others,” said Gon.

Kurapika was stunned. “What? _Me?!_ Everyone’s killing-”

Gon shook his head. “Not just you, everyone. And then things will change. The developers would see that no one wants to play this heartless game and we can all go home-”

“Stop right there,” Kurapika said dangerously. “Just, stop right now. Do you honestly think there’s a flying rat’s chance those people up there will take us out? If we stop now, it will only egg them on into finding other ways to get us moving. Those people want to see blood, and they want to see the blood of useless people.”

“Useless?” squeaked Gon. He looked so hurt and shocked then like he didn’t know any of that information until now.

Kurapika gave him a look of surprise. “You didn’t know that? The people here are here for a reason. We’re useless to the general population.”

Gon was looking close to tears again. “What do you mean by that?” he whispered

Suddenly, Kurapika didn’t want to tell him. He turned his head so he couldn’t see his face when he spoke again.

“Kurapika?”

Kurapika sighed. “Someone ‘threw you out’.”


	6. Chapter 6

"Looks like I was wrong," 

Gade grinned as Killua and the others caught up to him. They stopped when they saw a blanket of two people's remains splattered on the forest floor. The small clearing made it look more than it was, however, and, despite seeing much more than this, Jroom bent over the bushes and puked. Killua noticed Gade’s bim pouch open, having blown the two people up with a bim or two. 

“The man sort of looked like that freak.”

Jroom raised up from his stance over the bushes, glowering at Gade. “What the hell is  _ wrong  _ with you! You run off in the middle of the fight and let a good chip go for  _ this!?”  _ he huffed. “Word of the wise, your obsession is not the reason we’re here, dimwit!”

Gade turned on him while Elliot made a grimace. No one dared call Gade names if they didn’t want a knife in their throat, but Jroom must have been too upset to care.

Gade, though, didn’t care so much for the name, but more for what Jroom said about his target.

“My  _ what!? _ ” He snarled at him.

Knowing what would happen, Killua bypassed the arguing couple to crouch before the mess of remains Gade wasted. Still fresh with the smell of blood and death, he filtered them out easily from years of similar work he had to do for his family. Scanning the gore for two hands, he found them clutched together. The couple were holding hands when they died. 

Killua shook his head sadly and reached for the green chips on the back of their palms. Peeling them out of the holes were easy enough since they loosened their hold on you when you died, and he started to stand-but froze halfway.

The sudden silence seemed to amplify the sound of beeping right over Killua’s head, and the presences of the other members seemed even closer.

“What do you think you’re doing there, Killua?” Elliot asked him. His own bim was activated to blow at Killua’s slightest movement, tasting his pheromones in the air.

The deadliest one on their team besides Gade’s silent bims.

“I’m collecting the chips,” said Killua. “Isn’t that what you appointed me to do?”

Elliot frowned. He never trusted Killua and Killua never blamed him. When Gade invited him to join their group they’d found him surrounded by dead corpses and a pile of bim pouches and sixteen chips already in his possession. It was the promise of the group helping him hide his nen from unwanted people that made him agree to tag along. No one knew about his plans at the time, however, and Killua had no intention of telling any of them. His goal was to find Alluka and get them back home safe and sound, not make friends.

Even after explaining why he joined when finally asked, though, four eyes never took an eye off him. Killua knew it was a matter of time before he questioned him, and now seemed like that time.

Killua didn’t bother to look up.

“You’re doing this now?” he asked instead.

“No,” Elliot responded. “ _ You’re  _ doing this now. I’m just finishing it for you-well,” he adds as an afterthought. “Rather  _ all  _ of us are finishing it for you.”

Killua’s eyebrow rose in question, as his stomach leaped at the words.

“What?”

“It’s true kid,” Gade’s voice chimed in behind him. “You’re too quiet for our tastes and seem like the kind that follows his own rules. Which provides us with risks instead of help.”

“Are you calling me the risks?” Killua chuckled. This was it. It was time to call it the end.

Killua stood from his crouch and turned to them, a menacing look in his eye. The right effect from his peers sent pleasure down Killua’s spine, and he watched as their eyes widened and they backed up a little. 

Elliot was the first to snarl. His glasses looked askew on his face for some reason.

“You think you can just-”

Killua didn’t give him time to finish. Without breaking a sweat Killua was already behind the man, and chopped the pressure point pulsing in his neck. He fell like a rock.

“Elliot!” cried Jroom, backing up faster from Killua. “Don’t kill us, dude! We ain’t huntin ya no more!”

“Too late,” Killua said, and hit him hard. He was still looking at the space Killua left when he felt the punch in his stomach, and dropped to the ground.

Leaving Gade all alone.

“Killua,” said Gade. He was afraid, yes, but he was also standing his ground. Trying to reason with a killer heart to heart eh?

“You gotta let me go,” Gade said. “You know well we have things-important business- we gotta get through with others! Targets! Yeah, targets! Y-you know as an assassin you have to kill the target no matter what. Well, I got a target I wanna kill before I die-”

“Shut up,” Killua snapped, walking leisurely towards him. “What you and I kill are for two very different reasons. You want to kill for sport, and I,” he darted the last few steps and clutched his neck tightly. Gade didn’t know what happened at first, but he couldn’t move. Killua continued in a low voice.

“I kill for love.”

“GAHHHHHHH!” Gade choked and fell forward as his neck veins squirted out blood. Killua kept walking, his hand soiled but his expression angry.

He forgot all about his so-called group.

_ Gotta save Alluka soon before he gets to her. _


	7. Chapter 7

...

Kurapika woke up early in the morning, drowsy. He looked over when he heard snoring and saw the other boy, Gon, lying curled beside him. Kurapika was surprised at the soft smile that was on his lips. There was nothing to smile about in this world.

 He stood up, his white pouch full of bims weighing him down immediately. Like a reminder of what hell they were currently living in. Kurapika must have kept it on him when he fell asleep in the cave.

For some reason, he turned back to view his sleeping companion with narrowed eyes.

 He remembered the day before when in replace of that smile was a frown and tears were falling from his eyes. After what he told him, and how he took it, the younger boy should not be smiling ever again. But, it wasn’t like Kurapika wanted him to feel sad, it actually lifted his spirits a little to see such innocence again, if only a tiny bit, but...

 Kurapika clenched his fist unconsciously as his own words reverberated in his mind.

“You were ‘thrown out’, useless to the developers,” Kurapika whispered to Gon under the pale night sky. It was nearing black, and thus the players around them would be on the move to get to cover, but Kurapika felt he had to tell Gon what he was dealing with. It wasn’t fair to keep him in the dark about it, especially after learning the boy knew nothing of it.

Gon stood still watching the fire crackle still, but Kurapika knew he was listening fully.

“What do you mean, I was ‘thrown out’. What is that supposed to mean?”

Kurapika was a little surprised at Gon’s voice. He sounded bone-tired when an hour ago he was smiling up at Kurapika and exclaiming how exciting it would be to partner with him. Well, before Gon started talking about how they needed to save everyone, which led to Kurapika bringing up their predicament.

Kurapika looked at the trees, suddenly regretting opening his mouth. He was ashamed to think it, but he missed the springy person Gon was the time he and Kurapika first met. Though he never wanted to go through treating the kid again, it was enough to have all the supplies he needed at that time!

“The general population here are useless,” Kurapika began again. “I don’t remember much of what happened on that plane, but I’m sure as with the rules, Chrollo told you about why we were here. “We were written down on an official document to come here and serve the government at the expense of our loved ones’ hate against us.”

At those words, Gon turned to him with wide disbelieving eyes. “The developer never said those things to us!” he cried out, choking. “You were knocked out, you said so yourself! So how could you know!?” Gon said these things so fast Kurapika almost couldn’t keep up.

This was news to Kurapika and disturbing news at that. _So, Chrollo was meaning to keep that one a secret?_ Then he closed his eyes. “Gon, “ he sighed. “I wish that were the case, but it's true. I didn’t get this information from him directly but from another developer. His name was Uvogin.”

“Liar!” Shouted Gon. Kurapika opened his eyes quickly at the thrust of power coming from his companion. He stared at the angry looking Gon now standing right in front of him.

 _His power..._ It was like how it felt back when the boy was surrounded by the Assassination Squad. Would Gon try to kill him now?

Gon’s face was covered in tears and snot was running down his face. His body was shaking hard, but the coldness and hurt in his eyes stayed transfixed on Kurapika.

“I remember you now...the teenager who tried to stab Chrollo as he was talking to us. They grabbed you before you could though, and shocked you with those zapping things. I didn’t think they would let you live after that, but all they did was throw you out of the helicopter. We were given pills and sent with you after he told us all the rules.” Gon seemed to stop at his speech, done Kurapika thought, but he continued. “So, right now it's either you’re being evil and trying to distract me to take my things, or you know something we don’t?”

Kurapika was appalled to be accused of actually going along with what Chrollo wanted. _Chrollo_ wanted them to trick their partners and take their survival items, not him! Never!

“Gon, I’m telling you the truth,” he said softly. “And knowing that I was the one who tried to kill him in that plane, do you honestly think I want to tell you lies for my own gain?”

Honestly, Kurapika couldn’t remember much of anything besides waking on the island with a bad headache and twitching muscles. However, Gon wouldn’t be saying these things if it wasn’t true.

Gon blinked at him now, then shook his head hard at his inquiry. “I DONT KNOW!” he bawled. Kurapika was stunned. He started to grab Gon’s shoulders to tell him to stop, the players could hear them or at least lower his power again, but Gon began to talk crazy.

“Aunt Mito would never send me down here! Aunt Mito, Kite, Grandma, Dad, they all love me! Bastards, why would you send me here!? What did I do wrong!?” He kept going back and forth, saying his family wouldn’t do this to him one moment and questioning why they would the next.

Kurapika stood back, helpless to do anything for him.

He couldn’t relate at all, for his own family, after all, was dead.

Mood suddenly soured now, Kurapika quietly moved to the mouth opening and looked outside. The skies were a clear gray, Results of bims constantly going off, but Kurapika could still feel something else approaching. By the feeling of the air and the pregnation of the clouds, he knew there was a storm coming.

 _That’s good._ He mused to himself. _It means that everyone will be taking cover today._ Which meant he and Gon could get a few days ahead where food was concerned, and medicine.

Just then something caught his eye, and Kurapika turned back to the sky. There was a flying balloon moving through the clouds. Underneath it was a bundle of packages.

Food and necessities.

Kurapika’s eyes went wide.

“Perfect!” he said aloud. And slapped a hand over his mouth with a curse. Though there was no one near the remote cave Kurapika picked out specifically for that reason, it was still crucial for them to stay quiet. From what he could remember, there were bims with high tech frequency readings.

Kurapika began to go back into the cave, quickly grabbing his pack and scribbling a note to Gon using the final papers he’d had with him before he woke up on the island.

_Going to get more supplies-stay hidden and keep quiet. I’ll be back soon._

He started to slip it beside the sleeping boy, but as soon as he did so, Gon’s eyes opened and stared sleepily at Kurapika’s stilled position.

Silence.

“Uh-”

“Whatcha doin?” Gon yawned, interrupting him. He kept his eyes on him.

Kurapika had to think fast. He didn’t want the younger boy following him into such a dangerous mission. Especially since it was probable that he was still unstable.

“Go back to sleep.” He grinned down at Gon. “ You need your energy.” He started to move for the opening, but Gon wasn’t letting it go.

“But, where are you going?”

He was sitting up, staring after Kurapika with alert big brown eyes. Dang it, he wakes fast!

Kurapika sighed, knowing he wasn’t good at lying. Especially not with those eyes full of innocent curiosity. It was surprising how it affected him after what happened yesterday. Gon gave him a weird look.

“Are you ok? You’re smiling for no reason.”

Kurapika quickly frowned.

“It's the promise of supplies,” he said abruptly. “ They’ve come, and if _I_ see them so do others. I have to get to them before they do.” He started to turn.

“Wait!” Gon scrambled up from his spot on the cave floor, nearly tripping on his socked feet as he ran to him. “Take me with you!  You know there will be a lot of them there waiting to kill each other, it's the perfect place for an assault!”

Kurapika was surprised Gon was smart enough to acknowledge that. He seemed to him to be a very face-valued person. Kurapika smiled anyway. “I’m well aware of that, Gon,” he said. “But it’s best if you stay here. Your wounds-”

Gon stood before he could finish, the seriousness in his brown eyes reminding Kurapika of when he first saw him, surrounded by those five murderers. “What wounds,” he smiled. “I’m completely fine.”

Kurapika once again marveled at his recovery speed. Two days to rest from getting near exploded twice in one day and still this kid beats the odds...

However, Kurapika was just as stubborn as his new friend.

He turned to him fully, wanting the boy to understand him completely. “Gon,” he said in a low voice. “Just trust me.”

The other boy gave him a pensive look. “I know I'm young, but I’m still capable of holding my own! Even if you won’t let me go, I’ll follow you.”

Sudden irritation and panic welled up inside Kurapika at hearing that, and he shouted at him.

“Gon, you’re important! You have good views on life, you can’t die because of me!”

Gon stared at him, and the silence was suffocating. Kurapika was blushing, immediately regretting his words as soon as the boy spoke again.

“Why does that matter?” asked Gon. “Don’t you have them too-”

He stopped himself, Kurapika angrily staring at the white bim pouch he carried. Gon wasn’t silent.

“Who are the Kurta-”

“I’m going.” Kurapika interrupted quickly and moved for the opening once again. Then he turned back to Gon’s confused expression.

He took a deep breath. “I understand how suicidal this trip is, that’s why it should be me and not you who dies taking the risk. _You’re_ the good person.”

Gon shook his head. “Quit saying I’m better than you!” he shouted. His brown eyes, clouded with confusion one moment, full of fire the next, flamed at him now.

“I almost lost control yesterday after what you told me!”

Kurapika watched him. After a moment he spoke. “I know. But, Gon, this is different.” Kurapika shook his head sadly. “You don’t know me.”

“What was the point in wanting to team up then! I thought this was going to work on trust!”

His outburst surprised Kurapika. He turned back to him with wide eyes, blurting out his very thoughts. “I wanted you to partner up with me simply because you’re strong. Together, I had hoped we could get out of this place alive.”

“Didn’t you tell me you made a mistake like that once before?” asked Gon, furious. “Why am I any different?”

Why was this kid asking him so many questions? As if he were gearing towards some larger one in the end. Kurapika rubbed the old wound on his side where his first partner stabbed him. He suddenly felt uncomfortable.

But, as always, Gon wouldn’t let it go.

“Kurapika,” He said in the loud silence, unfazed. “Tell me what happened to your family.”

Kurapika’s stomach flopped. “No.,” he said abruptly. It was no wonder the boy kept barraging him with questions. He figured Gon was thinking about asking him about his family ever since he hinted at it.

Gon looked hurt for only a split second, but then the stubbornness came back into his eyes. And his next words caught Kurapika off guard.

“Too bad,” he said defiantly and darted out of the cave past him. Kurapika gasped, stunned at his speed, but more at his unexpected action.

_Don’t tell me he’s going..._

“Gon!” Kurapika shouted, putting all his effort into running to catch him.  He couldn’t get those supplies, for all of his amazing abilities Kurapika knew he wouldn’t stand a chance.


	8. Chapter 8

And then it happened.

An explosion blasted five miles away from them, but it was enough to hit Kurapika’s back.

“CRAP!” he shouted. They brought the attention of the other players!

He made to grab his friend's shirt and was blown into him by the heat blast. Startled, Gon cried out as they tumbled over and over against the rocks.

“AHHHH!”

The two of them crash beside another cave and picked themselves up quickly as the sounds of the people behind them got louder.

“Over there! I saw two of them!”

“Don’t let them get away!”

Kurapika grabbed Gon’s hand, ignoring the pain from the bim and the fall, and pulled him toward the cover of the forest ahead of them.

“Ouch! Kurapika-”

“Shut up and run!”

The chasers laughed.

Kurapika didn’t sneak a peek at their pursuers, but he could tell their power was not to be played with. They were not strong individually, but all ten of them together were as strong as the five of those killers from yesterday. And that wasn’t going to bode well for him and Gon for too long.

So Kurapika had to change tactics.

Right as he thought that he noticed the crag beside them they were running beside. It was high, surrounding the entire perimeter of the island. Pocketed with caves like the one he and Gon stayed in and the few rare trees that could survive on its surface. Distantly Kurapika wondered why he was just seeing this like it was invisible before, but he couldn’t think for long because he had to make his move.

Now.

“Gon!” he yelled at the boy beside him. Gon didn’t turn his head, but he was listening.

“Go up the wall!”

He didn’t question his choice, as he turned immediately for the wall, pulling Kurapika with him. It was a good thing he was fast too, bims hit where Kurapika was a split second ago, forcing them off their feet again.

“OH GOD!” cried Gon as he flew against the rock. Kurapika acted fast and grabbed at a hanging tree near the mouth of a small cave, bracing himself as he scooped Gon with his other arm to prevent him from falling. “Hold on to me!” he grunted as another volley of bims came their way.

Kurapika didn’t have time to stiffen or cry out as he got a glimpse of five beeping balls coming straight for him.

_No! I’m not ready-_

Instinct made him shove the person in his grip away from him before the bims could hit, and right as he heard the body thump away to safety, the bims exploded in his face.

At least, he was waiting for the impact.

For some reason, his body was being held by a pair of strong arms and a big hand was over his mouth. Paired with the distorted feeling of being suddenly in a dark place instead of the sunlight before made Kurapika confused even more.

Panicking, Kurapika tried to struggle for his bims, but the hand tightened on his mouth and hot breath whispered in his ear.

“Stop moving, will yah? We’re the ones trying to save your skinny butt!”

He stiffened. That wasn’t _Gon’s_ voice.

“Kurapika!”

He stopped thrashing at once when he heard Gon, opening his eyes wide to the darkness.

“Dammit!” said the other voice. The person behind him moved quickly then, leaving him. When his eyes finally adjusted he was watching a tall man near the entrance of the cave holding his hand out in front of him. He was concentrating hard in the beyond as if searching for those people that nearly killed Kurapika. Kurapika was about to say something about his position when a low dinging sound reached his ears and the area around him turned green for a split second.

Alerted, Kurapika started to jerk up but quickly realized the color was coming from the man’s hand as the light disappeared back into the sensor chip embedded in it.

Kurapika’s mouth gaped open.

“We were saved!” Gon’s voice near him brought him back to attention, and Kurapika turned to see his small friend sitting beside him and grinning big. Banged up and dirty, but grinning like he just won the lottery. The grin kind of distracted him for a second, and then he shook his head.

“Gon...” he muttered.

“Well,” Gon added as an afterthought. “He actually saved you since you really saved me first, but still.”

He was about to say something else, but then Kurapika heard a quiet squeak, and he looked over Gon’s shoulder to the darkness beyond. He felt other presences besides theirs with them, their power feeling similar to the man’s before them. Then his eyes began to adjust and he caught a glimpse of a group of young people huddled together.

“Are there other people here?” he asked suddenly, loud in the darkness.

“Shut up before you get us caught again, jeez!” shouted the man at the entrance. “This ain't easy!” Kurapika and Gon turned to stare at him, but he wasn’t watching, focusing on his arm. He flicked his wrist and that same green light from before shined out of his chip and made several beeping noises.

Kurapika raised an eyebrow, finally realizing what he was doing. “Canceling their signals out. That’s clever.” The man grinned at the compliment, concentration entirely on the outside. His brown eyes were nearly shut tight with focus.

“Um,” Kurapika started to say, but then man seemed to finish suddenly, and he turned to them with an exhausted smile. “Hah, we’re safe now.”

“Thanks, Stranger-” Gon began cheerily.

The man cut him off, shouting, “YOU TWO ALMOST GOT US ALL KILLED! THAT'S THE ONLY REASON I SAVED YOUR ASSES.”

Kurapika frowned at him. He guessed he was meaning him and the others in the cave. Now that his eyes were used to the darkness, Kurapika could see at least a dozen groups hiding in the back of the shelter. Young and old. The weak.

_He’s protecting the ones who cannot fight. The ones who have no business being here._

_That’s really noble of him._

Kurapika’s ears were ringing after the man’s outburst, but his manners still came into play. “Uh,” he began, with a friendly smile. “Regardless, you saved our lives and we are grateful.”

He tried to stand and was surprised when he wobbled on his legs and slumped back to the ground. Gon cried out and touched his shoulder with worry. “Kurapika! You shouldn’t move right now!”

Kurapika groaned as the numbness in his legs signaled to his brain how bad it would hurt later on when he could feel them again.

“Yes,” The man said from his position at the opening. Kurapika still couldn’t see his features clearly, but he figured he could make out the worry in his tone. “You need a little first aid.” He finished rummaging in a bag near him and pulled something small out.

“Here, eat this.”

As the man came closer Kurapika saw that his face looked similar to Gon’s. Same brown eyes and same determined expression that seemed to be like a default face for people like him. The only things different was that the older man wore spectacles and had a scraggly beard just coming in under his chin. Kurapika thought they could be brothers.

“What are you staring for?” the man asked once he realized Kurapika was staring. Quickly, Kurapika looked away, blushing, to look at the object he held out to him.

It was a pain pill. Kurapika’s eyes widened and he immediately shook his head no.

“Your people need it,” he said. “I can’t take your supplies.” He couldn’t even think of why the man would waste it on him.

Gon gave him a concerned look, which Kurapika ignored, but the man’s eyes narrowed at him. “What?” he asked angrily.

The tone surprised him so much that he turned to look at him in startlement. “I said-” he began, and the man stuffed the pill in his mouth.

“Just take the damn thing, kid!” he shouted. “I can’t let you die knowing I could have done something about it. I don’t need that weight on my shoulders with the ton of other responsibilities I have to contend with.”

The pill nearly choked him. He turned over on his hands and knees and coughed, trying to get the thing out of his throat.

Gon cried out in protest at the man’s actions. “Hey! That was too much, he’s _choking_ now!”

“OH CRAP!” cried the man, leaping to Kurapika’s rescue immediately. Kurapika, however, finally spit it out before he could do anything, and he gasped in his position, dazed.

Gon gave him a worried look. “Kurapika?”

When he didn’t answer, the man leaned over him to check Kurapika’s pulse, but Kurapika slapped his hand away angrily.

“Ow,” the man winced, pulling away. “His heartbeat is fast, but he’s gonna be ok,” he added in a grumble as he eyed Kurapika. Gon still looked upset, however, and he turned on the man with fire in his eyes.

“You could have killed him!”

“I said, “Oh crap!” didn’t I?” pointed out the man.

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean!?”

He stood up. “It _means_ I messed up and I regret-”

“Stupid,”

The man and Gon turned to look down at Kurapika. Kurapika didn’t bother to look up, wiping drool from his mouth.

“Who you callin stupid you-” Kurapika glared at the man to silence him.

“How are you supposed to help your friends if you give away all your medicine!?”

The man’s brown eyes darkened to seriousness.

“I told you,” he said calmly. “I don’t need the burden of your death on my hands. Not when I can do something about it.”

Kurapika shook his head and stood to point at the back of the cave. Distantly he realized his strength had returned. The small ones shrunk into the older people, who held them close. They all looked bony and pale. And afraid.

“What the Hell do they matter then? If you think that way, then you might as well let them all die!” at his words, the some of the people’s eyes widened. But they wouldn’t move.

Kurapika was angry and scared for them at the same time. It felt weird to him, how he cared so much for people he only glimpsed a few times.

He didn’t want them to die especially, for his sake.

The man looked back at the people he was helping to hide too, a grim look on his face. Gon’s look was one of horrified realization.

“I didn’t know there were others in here!”

The older ones ignored him.

“My ideology,” started the man slowly. “Is different from yours.”

Kurapika began to balk, but the man cut him off. “I don’t care about this game one bit.”

The man finally turned to look at Kurapika, a glint of fire in his eye. “None of these people should have to go through this. Not even you.”

“What?” questioned Kurapika. “Are you some kind of vigilante or something? Some noble hero for the helpless?” he gritted his teeth. “You can’t protect everyone, even someone like _you_ should know that.”

The man just smiled. It was a pleasant one. Kurapika narrowed his eyes. “At least I can help the ones around me. At least I have the power to do that, kid.”

Kurapika felt that the man was accusing him of something, and anger, loud and explosive, burst inside him. He darted toward the man and grabbed his collar, yanking him down at eye level. His voice was hoarse as he shouted in his face.

“Not if you give it all away to the ones who need it less!”

The man’s eyes went wide at Kurapika, but when his shoulders started quaking, Kurapika felt a sense of dread slither down his spine. _This reaction is not right for-_

“Stop it!” shouted Gon. The cave echoed loudly with his voice and Kurapika was yanked away from the other man.

Momentarily startled by Gon’s super grip, Kurapika turned his wide eyes to him, and Gon, who was about to yell again, turned white. He backed away from Kurapika quick, close to the man, who was also staring at Kurapika with fear.

_Fear..._

_Oh no..._

Kurapika reached up to his eyes, covering them as he backed away from the others. “No, I-this is...”

“What the hell...” said the man. “Are you some kind of demon!?”

Kurapika trembled with shame, his anger draining. However, he needed to keep his bearings. He needed to blame someone. His eyes targeted the man. "You say you protect these people, but you have the same goal as everyone else, right? To go back home. This game is a cruel one that has us pit against one another. Your claims may be innocent now, but how do they know you won't kill them as a last ditch effort and take their chips?"

The man opened his mouth and closed it, speechless for only a second. "You're one messed up kid, aren't you? Why should I go home knowing I killed so many innocent people!?"

Kurapika raised his chin defiantly. "To live."

"Kurapika, I said stop it," Gon's angry voice said. And Kurapika looked down at him in surprise. He didn't move from his spot beside the man, but Kurapika still felt slapped. Were they ganging up on him?

"What I'm saying is true, Gon!" he said sharply. "You  _have_ to know what you're doing at all times, there's no room for kindnesses!"

Gon looked at him with sadness. "I think that's a problem for you. I'll be back," This jarred Kurapika, the accusation that he had a problem and of Gon saying he would be back.

"Where are you going?" he asked. 

Gon gave him a glare. "We still need those supplies. And I'm going to get them right now." He began to stomp toward the cave opening.

The man blinked, "Wait, I think there's something-"

"Oh!" Everyone turned to stare at the back of the cave. One of the people huddled in a group, an old woman, stood up slowly to view Kurapika. She had curious blue eyes trained on him. She didn’t straighten, for her back was hunched.

“I remember you now...” she spoke bitterly.

Kurapika and the others turned to stare at her.

_Who the hell is she?_

“I-I don’t know you-”

“KURAPIKA!” cried Gon.

Kurapika felt the large presence coming behind him, but as he was distracted by the woman, he was too slow in turning to get out of its way. 

He heard a sickening crunch that repeated heavily in his mind, louder than the screaming people in the back of the cave.

and then intense pain from his side.

"Found you," a delighted sounding voice said softly in his ear.


	9. Chapter 9

“KURAPIKA RUN!”

Gon’s shout rang in Kurapika’s mind over the replay of crushed bones, but because of the pain shooting bolts in his body, he couldn’t speak. Besides, he was too petrified by the rise of aura clouding his senses.

He turned his head then, when he heard the voice of someone else behind him, and stared at a large blue man. The man grinned wide, showing broken teeth.

“The Hell!” he cried out.

“I said  _ move!”  _ Gon’s cry followed with a sharp hit to the side and Kurapika was knocked away from him and the blue man.

He couldn’t stop his momentum as his body tumbled against the rocks and hit the other side of the cave. He grunted with pain as he stopped, distantly realizing his hurt side was untouched.

_ THE HELL,  _ he thought as he struggled to lift up to see how the heck his friend could kick him so hard, and froze.

There were two giants facing each other in the small space of the cave, the group of kids and seniors tucked far behind them in the back, and the man who watched over them a little ways away from the scene. However, he was slowly inching to his people every spare second.

Kurapika’s eyes, however, was focused on where all the overpowered aura was coming from. He was looking at Gon.

_ Big  _ Gon.

“Gon?”

_ A giant with ripped clothing, bleeding skin, and an angry look on his face... _

He was bleeding from a punch to his jaw, meant, Kurapika realized, for him.

_ Gon took that hit for me... _

Suddenly, giant Gon leaped at the other giant and grabbed him in a headlock. The cave shook with the hard movements.

“What the F-” began the man across from Kurapika, and Gon interrupted him with another shout. “Stop staring and run!”

Kurapika’s eyes went wide at the little kid voice coming out of the man body, but he didn’t have time feel amused before the large blue man broke free from him and slammed his body to the ground.

The cave rocked.

“Get out of my way!” he shouted, sounding oddly familiar to Kurapika. Then he lifted his foot as if to stomp on Gon’s now muscular chest.

Gon grabbed his foot as it thrust down, struggling with strength now.

“Urgh,” he grunted.

The other giant grinned again. His one purple eye, as if he was punched in the eye recently, twitched with the strain.

“Hiding from me will get you nowhere. Fools like you don’t know how to control your nen. Good thing I’m a developer so it's easier to spot nen users.” He laughed. “You can’t fool me!”

_ A developer!? _

Kurapika struggled to sit up, his mouth beginning to hang open.

Forget about the second time that week he heard the word nen, he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he was a  _ developer! _

_ But, he’s not one of the ones who killed my- _

Before he could think more than that, the developer’s eyes suddenly shifted to him and his grin turned nasty.

_ Oh snap! _

Kurapika barely had time to move before he leaped in the air toward him and thrust his fist straight down into the spot Kurapika was just in.

Kurapika gripped the rocks connected to the ground to keep himself from flying too far and gritted his teeth at the giant.

The developer rose slowly and turned to view him. His beat up face would have looked comical if his stance wasn’t so intimidating. However...

“Might as well give up kid,” The blue man was saying. “You take something from us, you know you’re not getting out alive.”

Kurapika had no idea what the developer was talking about, but he did know the guy was looking faintly familiar. Like a puzzle, he was trying to fit the pieces of a long ago memory in his mind.

He remembered the first words the other giant uttered before attacking him.  _ “Found you.” _

If he was a developer, what did he want from him?

“Tell me your name.” He said suddenly, straightening from the rocks to glare at the developer. “I’m having trouble believing you’re what you say you are.”

The giant looked offended. Gon, still on the ground, stared at him with wide confused eyes.

“Kurapika,” he said hurriedly. “What are you  _ doing-” _

“There’s obviously something you’re not telling me, Gon. And I’m not going anywhere until I know what it is,” he said this with his eyes locked on the blue man, who was beginning to look a little worried at his expression. The developer laughed as if to play the quick look of fear off, leading Kurapika to narrow his eyes at him.

“A smart cookie, eh?” he mocked. “Reminds me of someone who looked just like you two months ago...perhaps the same one who tried to kill the Head on that plane?”

Kurapika smirked. “You expect me to remember? Especially when your people knocked me out with those stun guns?”

There was a gasp behind Kurapika, but he ignored it. The other man, the one in charge of the cave, must have made it.

“What?”

Suddenly, Gon leaped up with a roar and punched the distracted blue man in the face. He grunted as they both slammed against the ground, and Gon moved a knee swiftly in his crotch. The developer rolled over in pain.

“Kurapika!” Gon scrambled up off the groaning giant to get to him, holding out a large hand. “We have to-” he stopped then, staring at Kurapika with widened eyes.

Kurapika felt his insides trembling with cold anger, iced and heated at the same time in his veins. His head pounded with it, his eyes blinded.

His eyes red.

Gon began to take a step back, fearful once again. “Kura-” he tried to say and broke off.

It was funny really, Kurapika had enough mind to think, that someone larger and full of power could be afraid of him. Yet, he could feel how his own power had risen as much as Gon’s had, maybe more from the unbridled anger Kurapika was letting out.

He turned on the other giant, ignoring Gon now.

His eyes couldn’t leave the big black spider on the man’s back. The troupe members’ logo.

“You’re one of  _ them,”  _ he hissed. “ You’re a troupe member.”


	10. Chapter 10

“I-It’s fake!!” grinned the developer awkwardly. “Not real!” he laughed.

The developer noticed, like Gon, the color of his eyes and the sense that his aura was more than it was before. Gon watched his tense friend carefully, seeing how he was upset and clearly out of order.

_Kurapika..._

Kurapika’s lips didn’t twitch up into a smile at the developer’s nervous comment, instead, he began to take a step to him.

“Stop!” shouted a woman’s voice, startling everyone, and a figure got in his way.

Gon struggled to sit up where he lay to get a better look at the newcomer, and recognized her as one of Kurapika’s and his new friend’s protectees, the hunched woman that called out to Kurapika before the blue man came.

_Huh? Who is she?_

The woman was glaring at Kurapika, hands out as if blocking the developer behind her.

But, Gon thought in confusion, why would she be doing that?

“Quiz!” shouted their friend in the back. Gon turned to see the brown-eyed man running up to them, eyes set on the woman.

“Quiz, what are you trying to do!? This got nothin to do with us!”

The woman acted as if he said nothing, eyes on Kurapika, who was breathing hard.

“Why are you getting in my way, woman?” he growled, and it scared Gon. It made him widen his eyes.

_Kurapika?_

The blue man behind her seemed to be thinking along similar lines, except he was thinking about his life. He looked to be praying.

“If you kill him,” she said. “Then we all die. We won’t have a chance at getting home at all.”

“And you believe we will if I let him go?” retorted Kurapika. Gon looked at the woman worriedly, watching her slight hesitation. The man protecting her was doing the same.

“Yes,” she said more determinedly. “If we follow their rules-”

“Rules!” Kurapika laughed out loud. “Are you serious!? Following their rules is why we’re all dying now! And besides, if that’s the case why aren’t you and the others there fighting like the rest of us?” he barked. “Why are you hiding like little mice waiting for the rest of us to die off so you all can go home safe and sound? As if you did something to get to the end, knowing you haven’t in the least!”

“Kurapika!” shouted the man close by Quiz. Gon was giving Kurapika an incredulous look.

“That’s not fair!” he shouted.

“Fair!? _Fair!?”_ Kurapika spun on his so-called friends. “Are you insane!? What part of any of this is _fair!?_ Those developers who created this game will kill us before we reach the end of Btoom. There will be no survivors, Chrollo is fooling you all. You’re just too stupid to see that.”

There was silence in the cave after that, broken only by the soft whimpers of the developer before them and the rustling of the peoples’ clothes who hid in the back.

Kurapika ignored it, turning sharply back to the woman.

“Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Way.” He said, making a point with each word. Gon couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable at the way his red eyes seemed to burn into her’s.

The woman obliged, a little too quickly.

Then Kurapika took a step toward the shaking developer and collapsed to the ground.

Gon jumped up instantly. “Kurapika!”

He started for him as the developer’s loud laugh echoed in the cave, and Gon saw the blue man pop off the ground like he hadn’t been knocked down, and swooped the fallen blond boy in his arm.

“No!” he shouted. He turned to the man beside them, but he and the woman were nowhere to be seen.

“Let him go!” Gon said, turning back to the blue man. But he didn’t count on the giant to have moved so fast to him and was unprepared for the hard kick in his chest.

The sharp pain struck through him as Gon flew against the cave wall with a grunt.

His hard body hit it with a shake, and he finally couldn’t hold his hatsu any longer, allowing his body to regress back to its normal form.

“HAHAHAHA!” the developer’s laugh went in and out in Gon’s ears, but Gon knew he was leaving. Leaving with Kurapika.

“Oh yes,” said the developer. “Chrollo is going to love torturing this kid.”

_I have to get up...Kurapika....he’ll hurt him._

Gon started to pick himself up, struggling with the toll of pain on his body, but the presence of the tall man Gon thought ran away fell over him. He raised his head in surprise to see worried looking brown eyes.

“Don’t move, kid,” he said. “You’re badly hurt.”

“I thought you left...”

The man shook his dark head. “Only to get Quiz to the back with the others. I was making sure the developer didn’t come for them.”

Gon began to move again. He had to stop halfway, however, because it hurt too much.

“I said _don’t move!_ God, you’re just as stubborn as that blond kid.”

“I have to go after that bully!” Gon finally shouted at him. His frustration at not being able to move was getting to him.

The man was surprised. “Why?! Gon, you heard that boy, he’s crazy! And he obviously doesn’t give a damn about us but his own goals. It’s better if we just let him-”

Gon gave the man a glare. “No.” he said simply.

The man stared. “You’re just throwing your life away for some ungrateful brat?”

Gon didn’t know exactly why he was giving Kurapika a second chance. Ever since they paired together the teen was keeping secrets from him, never letting him get too close. And that one big secret he had inside him that he still won’t allow Gon to know. It was tearing Kurapika from the inside. It was slowly wearing him down. Gon knew it, he could see it every time Kurapika looked at him. And it had nothing to do with the game.

And, as if to taunt him further, Gon saw Kurapika’s eyes, gray one moment and red the next, flash in his mind.

Gon gritted his teeth, turning to the worried man. He saw Kurapika fall before him. Spent. Used. Broken.

_Shattered._

“Kurapika,” he began. “Is my friend no matter what.” Then he stood slowly but steadily. He ignored the pain the blue man put on him, seeming to have doubled when he returned to his old body, and looked up at the man with a weak smile.

“Just try to stop me.”

The brown-eyed man was giving Gon an awed sort of look, but then he shook it off and laughed.

“Wow, kid, you’re something else!” Gon was immediately wary. _Would_ he try to stop him?

Then the man looked down at him with his own bright smile, and nodded.

“Ok, I don’t get why you care so much about this person, but I understand determination, and you’ve got a lot of it. I’ll even help you out!”

Gon was surprised at this. “Huh!?”

The man grinned wider. “You heard me. Anytime you need a place to bunk hit me up. Just be sure no one’s following you, eh?”

Gon was so happy at his friend that he couldn’t stop from tackling him in a hug. And the pain was excruciating.

“Whoa!” laughed the man. “I thought you were still hurting!”

Gon was too busy feeling the waves of agony to speak.

_This pain, it doesn’t matter....I can use it as my motivation to keep looking for him._

When the pain reduced, Gon let the man go and started for the opening.

“Gon wait!” Gon turned to look at the man.

The man tossed a white and red box to him. He caught the familiar looking plastic. He’d seen whole supplies before, except he’d never got to hold one. The developer called Chrollo had shown one like it before the players dropped.

“A first aid kit?” Gon said, looking at the man questioningly. “But you need it...”

“I can use the hundred of pill bottles I collected during the beginning of the game,” said the man. “Those are rarer than the bottles, but you seem to need it more right now. And Kurapika.” added the man. “He can come back too if you find him again.”

Gon stared him until he began to look slightly embarrassed.

“What is your name?” he asked just cause he never got to before.

“Leorio,”

Gon nodded once more and turned on his heel to leave the cave. He had to leave urgently for Kurapika, but he already vowed to himself that he would be back to give them the supplies they need.

As Gon jumped from rock to tree, following the fading scent of Kurapika’s nen, he thought about when Kurapika rushed at Chrollo back on the plane.

He really hadn’t known that boy was the same one who was just taken now, hadn’t realized he was spending time with the hero of the players. No one liked the thought of fighting and killing each other in some deadly game, no one even knew why they were there. Including Gon. When Kurapika attempted to murder the hated developer, everyone had hoped he would end him, but then the stun guns came and that was the end.

Now it seemed Kurapika knew much more than the players themselves knew, and that was why that developer wanted him. Gon tried not to think about last night when Kurapika told him about why the players were there in the first place, An example the teen knew more than the others.

The old anger toward his family sparked in his veins, but he shook it off.

 _Developer,_ He thought instead. _I know why you want my friend, but you won’t get far._


	11. Chapter 11

Kurapika felt odd getting shaken so much as he slept. _Wait, sleeping!?_ Kurapika suddenly jolted awake more fully and saw the back of blue muscle. He felt the harsh wind rush past his ears, clouding the harsher sounds of his carrier’s breathing.

He was moving on someone’s back and going pretty fast.

_Oh hell no!_

Kurapika quickly raised his body, twisting to punch the offender’s head in.

The unknown person had no time to turn when Kurapika crashed his fist into the back of his head, sending them both out of the man’s run.

“Ahhhhh!” he shouted, holding onto Kurapika as they fell.

 _Urgh!_ Kurapika was still too weak to break free as he fell with him, and they smashed into water.

As soon as Kurapika glimpsed his capturer, his head automatically filled with anger and he straightened in a defending stance. “ _You,”_ he snarled.

The developer stood, too, rubbing the back of his head. His bare feet were inches in the water-a lake, Kurapika noticed-and he glared at Kurapika with hate.

“Woke up, did we?”

“Why the hell were you carrying me?”

The developer only smiled.

Kurapika narrowed his eyes as he imagined what the developer would have done with Gon and the others after he fell, and he took a step toward him. He could feel his aura building inside.

“What did you do to them?” he knew he wouldn’t have left them alone. There was no way a developer would do that if they wanted something. He knew from experience.

The developer’s grin turned nastier, and Kurapika’s vision nearly blurred again.

Just before he passed out and learned who the blue man truly was, he had this same feeling come over him. Now, it washed through him like a blanket and his aura rose higher.

The developer’s smile died.

“This,” Kurapika breathed with wide eyes. “Is the power I will use to vanquish you and your friends who killed my family. You won’t see the light of day again.” Like instinct, he flicked his hand and felt something similar to rage materialize on his hand. When he looked down, there were five chains that extended from each finger on his right hand. They felt heavy on him, weighted, but when the developer looked at him, he never looked down at his hand.

There was something cold around his heart as well as if it was constricting it.

_These chains...I know them from somewhere._

“Oi,” said the developer, causing Kurapika to look up at him. The blue man was frowning. “What are you getting distracted over there for? Aren’t you gonna make your move? Cuz the second you do, I will knock you back out.” he got himself ready to do so.

Kurapika was surprised about him not being able to see what was clear to him, but not as surprised as he should be.

This has happened before, a long time ago, Kurapika was sure if it.

He faced him.

_He can’t see them, but that will work to my advantage._

“Come at me, then.”

The blue man got angry, just as Kurapika had hoped.

He roared and ran at him. Kurapika flicked his wrist again and made to wrap the chains around him, then thought again and instead switched up to punch him in the face.

The developer went down, creating a big splash in the water that showered down like rain.

Kurapika, breathing hard, looked down on him.

_Chaining him too early will be too merciful. For what he’s done, I want him to suffer._

And time seemed to stand still as Kurapika lunged at him and began punching his already beat up face. Over and over he let his anger out on the monster. All his pain, his torment, his guilt. Everything went into each punch. The developer started whimpering and something other than water kept hitting his face, but that didn’t stop Kurapika.

“Damn. You. Troupe. Members. I. Will. Kill. You. All.”

“Kurapika, stop!”

Gon’s voice entered Kurapika’s mind, sounding loud in the area he and the developer was in. The developer’s gurgles and the sound of flesh hitting wet flesh helped to drown it out.

“Kurapika, stop it _please,”_

Something grabbed his shirt from behind, but Kurapika swatted it away, eyes focused on the pile of blue flesh in front of him, and the giant spider in his vision.

“LET HIM GO”

Kurapika finally turned on the thing trying to pull him away from his vengeance and punched him square in the face. “SHUT UP!”

Almost immediately he regretted what he did when he saw a boy in familiar green clothes and dark hair fly across from him into a tree.

He hit it with his back and slumped there.

“Gon?”

The blue man beside him wasn’t moving anymore, and Kurapika started to turn to him, a sick feeling in his gut, but paused as the sound of a hard whine reached his ears.

Alerted, Kurapika whipped his head behind him and saw it too late.

The white bim was already in his face.

_Boom!_

...

Gon’s eyes fluttered open when he heard the terrible sound of the explosion and quickly looked over to see if his friend moved in time. He struggled to stand up, more pain added to his old wounds, and gaped at the two bodies lying unmoving in the bloodied red water.

There was nothing more to recognize who the developer was, not even the blue of his skin was saved from all of his blood Kurapika forced out of him. It was as if a monster had gotten a hold of him.

 _And it had._ Ignoring the developer’s maybe dead body, he started for Kurapika, swashing through little pieces of flesh on the way. Distantly he thought where did it come from because it wasn’t there before the explosion, and it didn’t seem like it came from the bodies before him. His thoughts about it dashed when he got closer to his friend and his fears about his state was answered. Kurapika was bleeding everywhere, as much as the developer, but instead of raised skin, he was burnt from the bim. And not a cut or laceration was on him.

_Just like me..._

Another presence and a step from behind made Gon turn around fast, ready to fight.

A tall man with long dark hair falling down his back entered the clearing, his equally dark eyes scanning the area. He wore dim green clothing with something like yellow pin needles sticking out of his torso. As the vest on him covered only half of his upper body, Gon could see a darkened reddish shirt underneath, accentuating how lean he was.

He spotted Gon, who was near hyperventilating at the aura he was emitting, and smiled.

“Not here after all?” he said. His voice sounded friendly, but that didn’t help the fear settling in Gon’s bones at all.

_What kind of person is this?_

“That’s upsetting, It must have been you I was sensing then.” Gon noticed he was carrying a bim in his hand then, a white one, and he was twirling it around playfully.

On his waist were several other pouches. And Gon knew he had more chips hidden somewhere on him. He and Kurapika were in trouble.

Gon faced him slowly, leading the man to raise an eyebrow and tilt his head. To Gon he sort of looked...emotionless.

“Do you wish to fight me?” asked the man. “Why the stance? I only wanted to know if you’ve seen my little brother. He shouldn’t have come here and my family, including me, is worried sick.”

_So he’s not looking for more chips..._

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

_So please leave._

Gon was determined not to allow him to get close enough to see Kurapika.

“Hmm?” asked the man, oblivious to Gon’s urgency.

“What are you doing out here alone? It dangerous for kids your age.”

Gon was surprised. It was dangerous for everyone.

“I know that,” Gon said instead, choosing not to tick him off. Even though he was sure the man wouldn't have cared. “Were you the one who threw that bim earlier?” he blurted out.

He wanted to smack himself, he was trying to get him to leave faster, not stay for chit-chat.

_But, it hurt Kurapika, and if he was the one to do it..._

“Who, me?” asked the man. “ I remember throwing a person in my way, but not a bim...Ah!” he stuck a finger in the air as if exclaiming something, but his expression barely lifted. “The person I threw had one. It was meant for me, but the person missed.”

Gon gasped, feeling his insides roil with disgust.

The remains floating in the water...that was from that person. And if the body hit the bim going for Kurapika, then that meant Kurapika was saved from the explosion.

At least, the brunt of the attack.

Gon felt sort of relieved at that fact, but...

“You just threw that person...” he shivered. “Because he got in your way?”

The man tilted his head once again.

“Yes? Why?”

Gon was looking at a cold-blooded killer, someone who didn’t care at all who he killed.

He sounded like Gade and his group of people.

_Is he from their group? Is he seeking to kill the weak to get farther in the game too? How many strong people are there now!?_

Gon shook his head from the overwhelming thoughts and looked back at the man.

“The person you’re trying to find isn’t here, so...”

“You want me to leave?” the man asked. “Ah, but maybe I’m curious about you now. Like, about the fact that you and my Killua share the same level of auras.”

Gon went stiff. Distantly, he knew the name of a Killua, but it was said once or twice among the Assassination Five and Gon never knew who it was said to.

Then the man broke the tensed atmosphere.

“Or,” he said as an afterthought. “He could be covering most of his nen from me. He doesn’t want to be found after all.”

Gon could imagine why.

The man gave him another once over and raised a hand covered in blood. It was a farewell.

“My name is Illumi. If you see a short kid with white hair and a bad sense of respect, find me. You know my nen.”

Gon saw a boy that matched that description in his head. He stood on a tree looking down at Gon with distrusting blue eyes, his hands in a gray-blue hoodie and the adults of Assassination Five on the other trees around him.

Gon gaped at the man, Illumi. _He_ was his brother!? They looked nothing alike!

“What?”

“Uh, I don’t think your nen will be enough for me to find you. You could be too far away.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that,” said Illum plainly. “My nen is larger than yours and Killua’s combined.” Gon shivered again.

“Ah!” Illumi spoke again, having thought of something. He reached into one of his many bim pouches and pulled out a dark square bim.

“Here.”

Gon immediately backed away when he started to move closer to him.

“Relax,” Illumi blinked his black eyes. “This is a tracking bim. When you see my brother, hide this in his pouch. The bim will do the rest.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.”

Illumi shook his head. “In case you do.”

Gon knew about the video game’s different types of bims and each one’s uses. It made sense that, like everything else here Chrollo would develop the same kinds for each of the players.

Gon wouldn’t touch it. “What if it blows up when it detects him?”

“Huh? Oh, no worries. I tinkered with it so that it can only find him. My needles are trustworthy.”

Gon stared at the needles on his chest, wondering what exactly they did.

He remembered something about them, something faint and a long time ago feeling.

Gon stared up at the tall man, wondering.

“D-do I know you from somewhere?”

Illumi just stared at him. “Should you?”

Gon decided no, banishing the weird feeling of meeting the strange man somewhere else, and took the bim.

Illumi turned on his heel without another word and disappeared like magic.

Gon blinked, staring at the spot he was just standing in.

His mouth was standing open.

After a few seconds of standing there in disbelief, Gon shook his head and turned to run for Kurapika, slumping beside him with relief to know that he wasn’t hit fully by the bim.

Ignoring the chunks of the person who owned it, Gon put his head on Kurapika’s chest to hear his heartbeat.

It was faint, but at least he was still breathing.

“I need to get you out of here before more players come and-”

Kurapika slapped his hand away weakly as Gon was reaching for him. It startled him so much he fell back in the shallow water.

“Kurapika!”

He was ecstatic to see his friend awake, but when he raised up again to speak to him, he saw the bright red gaze Gon was forever trying to keep out of his mind.

Gon gulped.

“That man...” Kurapika was saying.

“Kurapika, please, we don’t have time-”

“Gon, where is he?” Kurapika said calmly. Though when he turned his red eyes on him, Gon could see the wickedness in them.

That bim wasn’t enough to kill the bloodlust.

Gon shook his head, tears threatening to fall. “Who?”

“ _Where is the troupe member!?”_

Gon was through with this. He was through with all of it.

He stood, having Kurapika look up at him.

“I tried to...” Gon began shakily. “I tried to see what you see, feel what you feel, but you don’t- you don’t care.” Anger made him kick the water so it splashed on both of them.

Kurapika didn’t move, still as a statue.

“Look at that man!” Gon growled, pointing at the puddle of flesh beside them. “Do you realize what you did!? He’s probably _dead_ now! Don’t you remember what I told you I wanted to do when we became partners? I said I wanted to _save_ people not kill them. “But,” he whispered now. “ You’re just like everyone else now, you’re a monster.”

When Kurapika still didn’t say anything, only stared at him, Gon gritted his teeth.

“Your eyes, your power, whatever you are and whatever the troupe did to your kind, this is all that matters to you isn’t it?! You don’t care about anyone. I thought-I thought for a while you wanted to help us get out of here. It seemed like you didn’t like the idea of getting thrown away either, but you don’t have anyone who cared to throw you out. Aunt Mito didn’t throw you out, like she did me, did she!? So what makes you think you have the right to throw everything away and abandon me too!”

Gon was hyperventilating in the silence afterward, watching the water before him. A pink piece of meat, it looked like part of a thigh, bumped against the toe of his shoe. It bumped against it over and over, as if it wanted to get somewhere but it was too senseless to know there was something preventing its progress.

It was like all of his bad thoughts this last week finally came to head this day, and to finally let it all out, his anger, his fears...it was relieving.

He heard Kurapika’s breathing, quick as his own, but there were no other sounds. Finally, he spoke.

“I’m- Forgive me-I didn’t know-”

Gon exploded. “ _Of course you wouldn’t know!_ ” He glared up at him. Kurapika’s eyes were wide, still red as ever, but Gon was finally seeing a little humanity in them.

He began to cry. “How could you know how much it hurts to get thrown away by your family members?”

Kurapika’s eyes flashed with hurt then, but he struggled to stand, wincing with the pain and dragged himself closer to Gon.

His hand reached out to touch his face. “Stop crying...” he said softly.

Gon hadn’t realized he was, but he was more focused on the fact that Kurapika’s eyes were gray again, and he was _smiling._

A sad smile, but one nonetheless.

“You’re right, Gon,” he said. “I have been only caring for myself and the vengeance for my people. Even when I invited you to join me, I was only thinking of getting to the developers faster with an extra hand, but Gon, that isn’t entirely true either...”

Gon stared at him. Kurapika chuckled. “I actually care for your safety.”

Gon’s heart did a flip, and his eyes widened at Kurapika. “What?” he breathed, barely able to believe the other boy before him.

Kurapika’s eyes shifted over his head and his gray eyes went hard as steel.

He stood up easily despite his wounds and unzipped the pouch on his waist.

Gon was startled at that and Kurapika noticed, giving him a little smirk.

“Thank you, Gon. You helped me see what I should be focusing on to getting us out of here.” He took out a baby blue covered bim. It was round and average sized. A chaser bim.

Gon turned to see what Kurapika was looking at, seeing five people running toward them with their own kinds of bims.

Wait, did Kurapika mean to _use_ his game weapons!?

“It’s time to play this game,” Kurapika confirmed. “Chrollo’s way.”


	12. Chapter 12

Kurapika felt lighter after they made their getaway from the players, running back toward Leorio’s hideout.

It was relatively easy to scare the civilians away, and still, they kept their chips. Kurapika didn’t know exactly how much Gon carried on him, before now he never cared to ask, but he and Gon decided to sit down and show each other what they had when they returned to the safety of their own cave.

He watched Gon in front of him, limping as he jumped from tree to rock. He’d been hurt by one of their bims before getting away, his leg bleeding, but after obtaining a lucky supply cache underneath the ground where the beach lay, it was now wrapped with gauze Kurapika applied to him.

“Gon,” Kurapika shouted at him through the wind. Gon didn’t look back, but he stopped on a raised rock to turn to him. Ahead was the forest and Leorio’s cave hidden inside.

Kurapika stopped on another rock, straightening to view his friend. He remembered his face when it looked so happy after Kurapika told him about his family and why he wanted to kill the developers. He told him about who he was, about the Kurta, and who the troupe members were. He told him how they wanted their eyes to sell on the black market because they were beautiful to them and high in price. Gon had listened attentively and never interrupted. When Kurapika finished his story he felt a million times lighter and Gon was smiling brightly. So, Kurapika must have done something right.

It was this feeling that led him to want more with this person he now thought of as a friend.

“I was thinking,” he looked away. “When we finished this game and got back home, we could still be friends?” he felt a little dumb for saying it as soon as it came out of his mouth, Gon was giving him the oddest look.

“Kurapika, why would we stop being friends after the game?”

Kurapika halted in his words, closing his mouth.

_Yes, Kurapika, why would we?_

Kurapika furrowed his brow. “I thought...I thought...”

What did he think? It was so faint when it entered his mind but he thought for a second of something terrible, something that already happened before, but a very long time ago.

He thought of ants.

“Kurapika?”

Kurapika looked up at Gon’s worried expression and tried to smile. “Ah, nothing, Gon. Let’s go.”

The cave seemed dark and empty when they closed in on it, but seeing as how that helped mask from other players, Kurapika and Gon thought nothing of it as he held out his arm and flicked his wrist slightly to activate the chip on his hand. The sonar waves echoed out from it, spreading like aura at least fifty feet around them. The waves didn’t catch any movements, so he turned to Gon with a thumbs up.

Gon began to climb the rocky wall to Leorio’s cave opening, Kurapika’s bookbag in front of him like a bodyguard. It was in case Leorio thought they were harmful strangers looking for a place to hide out in and wanted to stab him.

“Gon,” whispered Kurapika where he crouched near the base of a tree close to the wall. “Make sure he sees you fully after he attacks you, he’ll keep at it if he doesn’t recognize you behind that bag.”

Gon nodded and kept climbing.

As he progressed up to the hole, Kurapika scanned the tree line for any signs of danger. After they gave Leorio the supplies, they would head back to their cave on the other side of the island and start to plan what to do next. Kurapika and Gon decided to trust each other and show their chips and bim types. It was Gon’s idea to have both of them know everything about the other to better work with each other. The last time Kurapika did that with someone it ended badly. That little girl would forever haunt his actions, but this was different.

Gon was different.

As he searched his eyes noticed the line of craggy wall surrounding the island’s perimeter again, and he narrowed his eyes. He straightened slowly, turning in a slow circle to follow the rock. The last time he noticed it was when he and Gon stumbled upon Leorio’s hideout the first time. Now, Kurapika saw that his cave was part of the surrounding bed, and became greatly curious.

_What does this suppose to mean? A way out maybe? A different place connected to this island?_

What would happen if he found his way on the other side?

Kurapika’s mouth parted in his deep thinking, forming a plan in the back of his mind, but stopped as soon as the scream ripped through the air toward him.

He whipped his head toward the source, staring wide-eyed at the opening of Leorio’s cave.

_Gon!_

...

Killua ran like his life depended on it through the trees hiding him, keeping low and silent as his heart thundered on with the thoughts racing in his mind.

He saw his brother, the dark-haired bastard was standing right there staring in the distance like there were no threats about him.

Like he was the only threat there.

Killua gritted his teeth as a branch cut his cheek. He knew it drew blood but he didn’t care. He had to get far away from him before he was found out.

Dammit, all the time of making sure he was hidden from his brother, using a team of adequate nen-users to mask his own, playing the game the right way so he wouldn’t cause attention to himself...all of that didn’t matter in the end!

And now he was in jeopardy of losing the opportunity he gave himself in finding Alluka.

Illumi hadn’t seen him, he was sure of that. Killua only spotted him as he was walking down the many trails of the forest. Twenty feet away no less. What Killua was concerned about was why he hadn’t sensed his en from where he was. In fact, he should still feel it even now, almost a hundred feet away and still counting.

A sick feeling coated Killua’s insides as he forced himself to speed up.

_He’s playing with my head. He’s waiting for me to drop my guard and think I made it without his knowing, but he felt me before I could get away._

He knew it with all of his heart that he nearly stopped to throw up.

_But, I can’t leave her here, I won’t let you get what you want!_

Killua jumped off the rock he leaped on, landing in a wide clearing. His legs almost gave out and he caught his balance, breathing hard.

He looked about him to get a sense for where he was.

There were trees, heavy with greenery surrounding him, and a rocky wall high above his head in front of him. He gave it a quizzical look until he heard and felt a sudden blast of nen in one of the holes pocketing its surface.

He immediately positioned himself in a defensive stance, covering his face as wind and pebbles rushed at him.

“What the h-”

“AHHHHHHH!” The scream was earsplitting, hurt and broken. LIke a long sad note of shrills, it almost broke Killua’s heart. With squinted eyes, Killua looked up to the hole near the only tree beside it and saw light coming out of it. He could also hear a shout of someone yelling the person’s name. The voice was shouting, _Gon!_ over and over.

Killua’s heart was beating fast as he struggled to stand his ground against the power, but it nearly proved too much and dragged his feet back inches from his spot. He stared down at his feet, discovering how easy it was on his face to bend it away from the burst of aura, and wondered how in the world someone could be so strong.

He knew it was only concentrated nen being thrust out at the same time, but right now it felt more than Illumi’s!

The scream seemed to grow louder and the power stronger. It pulled the trees about him up by its roots, and the rocks flew at him in chunks now. It was too dangerous to stay.

Killua started to move, but he found he couldn’t, especially when something big jumped out of the cave and landed with a heavy thump before him. He grounded himself, staring up at a crying giant.

He wore green ripped clothes, and no shoes. He was almost naked, but Killua sort of recognized his face. A boy his age who survived an explosion with all of his limbs intact...

Killua stepped back a little from him, gasping. _I-is this his brother!?_

“Gon, stop! Calm down, he might be fine if you would just _listen-”_

Killua turned his head to see the tall blond boy Gade was trying so hard to find before he died. He was running out of the cave, eyes focused on the giant when he noticed Killua as well.

He stopped running, frozen in his spot at the cave entrance.

Oblivious to them, the giant began running off away from them, calling out a name like a chant. “ _Leorio!_ ”

The blond boy turned quickly away from him, chasing after the giant. Not before, however, giving Killua a look of distrust.

It didn't deter Killua in the least. He just saw a ray of hope. If he could get to that giant first, there was a chance he could still save his sister.

And he would take all he could get.


	13. Chapter 13

Kurapika was surprised to see that white-haired kid again. He wondered what he is doing there and if his group was hiding anywhere as an ambush. For some reason, they popped out of nowhere too constantly to be coincidences. Kurapika admitted though, that he hadn’t thought of them in a long time, and completely forgot about them after they left Gon to die. Now that they were here, however, put a sick feeling in his gut that Gon was in trouble.

He tried again to feel their auras, but they must have been hiding it from him. He didn’t want to use his sensor chip for fear they would spot him either.

He stood on a tall tree, looking about the landscape. Bims were going off in different sections and the sounds of sensor chips were activating. There was a path of destruction made by Gon from where Kurapika stood to farther south, but it was so wild it would still be hard following it. He focused back of the players below. All fighting to get out of this place.

 _Dammit,_ He thought suddenly. _They’re all playing the game exactly how Chrollo wanted it. This is the norm for us now. No hope, just blind living._

Kurapika closed his eyes shut hard. His head hurt.

“We have to hurry up and leave this place,” he said to himself. “ Gon and I.” The thought of Leorio and how Gon was heartbroken when he saw everyone dead, and Leorio nowhere in sight, made him anxious to find him again.

_Where is Gon?_

He started to move again, but as he was leaving something struck his head and he fell out of the tree, and blacked out.

When he woke up he looked around, seeing no one. Just trees and rocks. Kurapika stood as he was feeling the bruise on the back of his head.

And then he stared up at the big man before him.

A man who resembled a clown grinned at him, holding a small rock.

“If you hadn’t gotten up again I would have started pummeling you with more rocks.”

...

Killua was hiding with the boy when Kurapika started searching for him. He’d gotten to him faster than Kurapika, and at a good time too. He found the former giant as himself, lying face first on a large hanging branch. Around him was destruction from his tear through the forest. The kid, however, hadn’t stopped crying since he got there. Not even after Killua tried to calm him down.

“I thought everything would be better...” The boy was still blubbering. “but nothing changed, not really. They just got worse. We’re still here, we’re still killing each other, and now... C-can you tell me why this is happening?” He appealed to Killua. “Can you tell me why we have to do all of this?”

“Look,” said Killua, staring away from him. The kid, though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, was breaking his heart. “ you’re upset, I get it, but I am as heartbroken and clueless as you.” he shook his head, his voice lowering. “My sister was taken from me by my older brother. He took her and threw her down here, and when I tried to stop him...My mom, she was in on it. When Illumi attempted to knock me out my mom picked me up without hesitation to take me back inside our home. I remember when she rubbed my back and whispered everything would be alright. That I wouldn’t miss her after a while. I’ll just forget she even existed.”

“But, you didn’t.”

Killua was startled to hear the boy’s voice without its whine. He looked over at him, berating himself for forgetting he was there even for a second. The boy looked at him with a little bit of curiosity and sadness. His brown eyes were wet, but he didn’t look as if he would cry anymore.

“No.” he said with a shaky smile. “I just-she was screaming and kicking against my brother, trying to get back to me. I tore away from my mother-I think I hurt her in the process and tackled my brother to get to her. All my brother did was laugh, and he punched me in the head. That made me too dizzy to follow them, but I forced myself to anyway.”

“Why would your brother want to hurt your sister?” the boy whispered.

Killua hesitated, wondering why he was telling him all of this about himself...he just felt so tired of keeping it to himself he guessed. He was tired of feeling so alone. He continued. “My sister has a special power that is dangerous for everyone involved. If she got into the wrong hands she could kill us all.” His anger quickened at this thought. “But, what the hell? She never deserved something like _this!_ She wouldn’t use her power for evil if her life depended on it! She’s _my_ Alluka!”

“So the same thing happened to her like it did me...” said the boy thoughtfully. Killua looked at him again. The boy was staring into nothing.

“Hm?” asked Killua.

“I can’t be sure,” answered the boy. “But I think my aunt Mito put me down here...but, how do I deserve this?”

Killua averted his gaze, a sigh leaving his lips. “Gon, was it? Tell me how does anyone deserve this? This game, this _world_ is like a dumpster for all society’s thoughts of bad people, evil people...but,” he turned fully to Gon. “ Are we really? Or is society the real evil?” Gon just stared at him with awe, despite his earlier condition.

“You sound like you know why we’re here-”

“GON!”

They both jumped at the loud shout.

“Dammit,” said Killua. He was staring toward the direction of the shout. Northwest of them. “That guy’s here. Hey, I’ve got an idea for you.” He looked down at Gon. “If you help me look for my sister, I can get you out of here with us. What do you say?”

“But, what about Kurapika and Leorio?”

“Leorio?” asked Killua.

“He’s our friend too. He used to live in that cave back there, but he left it for some reason. The others he was protecting, kids and older people, they’re all sleeping so he must be planning on coming back real soon.”

Oh, that guy he was calling out. Killua knew, from what he gathered during that scene, that the man was close to them, and he more than likely died. The boy was in denial right now.

“Gon, where are you?” That other boy’s voice rang in the air close by. Crap, too late. Killua quickly crouched next to Gon on the branch.

“Stay still.”

Gon stood.

“What are you-”

Kurapika came into view and saw Gon. Killua cursed under his breath and stayed hidden.

“There you are-” Gon fell forward suddenly from his exhaustion and Kurapika caught him. “Gon!”

“Killua...” began Gon. “found a way to get us home again...but, we have to find his sister first.”

Killua felt bewildered. _What the hell is wrong with this kid!? He just gave me away!_

Kurapika’s gray eyes went into slits and he scanned the tree line over Gon’s head, thinking he was far away. Killua couldn’t help thinking a very childish thought about that.

_Stupid._

Then Gon tiredly put a hand on Killua’s head. “Here.”

_Dammit..._

Kurapika saw him, a little surprised he was right there.

“Why are you here?” He snarled. “What the hell were you telling Gon?”

Killua immediately went into defensive mode. He put his hands in his hoodie and stood, giving Kurapika a casual look. “None of your business-”

“He told me about his sister, Alluka.” Relentless Gon said. Killua’s eyebrow twitched. “She was taken by his brother down here and that’s why he’s here, too. To save her. Because someone who should have loved her threw her away...”

“Gon...” said Kurapika. He looked sad for him. Killua bristled.

“I’m not taking so many people with me,” he snarled “That's too many to handle.”

Gon turned his head to him. “Then no,” he said simply.

“What!?” Killua felt shot. “Don’t you want to get out of here!?”

“Yes,” answered Gon. “but not if I have to leave my friends behind. Take all of us or none at all.”

Killua felt his face screw up.

“I can’t do that! Maybe with two people, but with all four-”

Kurapika interrupted the conversation. “Do you know where we can get out of here? Have you been there before?”

Killua wouldn’t look at Kurapika. He, in fact, knew nothing about any exit. For all he knew, it was at the bottom of a lake. There just weren’t any. But, he needed to persuade these people to help him anyway.

“I may have stumbled upon it in my search for Alluka,” he grumbled. “But, I admit I have no clue where it is anymore.”

“Oh that’s great,” Kurapika said mockingly. “So we’re following a nonexistent lead!”

“At least I have someplace to lead to, what do you have?! Nothing.” Killua snapped back.

Kurapika narrowed his eyes at him.

“My memories,” he said.

Killua and Gon stared at him, then Killua smirked.

“Aaand, you want me to bring a crazy person with us,” he said to Gon.

“Shut up,” Kurapika said sharply at Killua. “I figured this out not too long ago as I was looking for you, Gon. Do you remember when that developer tried to capture me? He wanted to know something about me, didn’t he?”

“Yes.” nodded Gon.

“In order to tell you my plan I need to know a question I’ve been meaning to ask you about that.”

“Right,” added Killua. “And if you’d stop blabbing about wanting to know so much he might have told you by now.”

Kurapika ignored Killua.

“You seemed to know why the developer wanted me. Does it have something to do with Chrollo?”

Gon looked down. “I’m sorry, I never got to tell you...that man, thinks you hold secrets about the game. Like, for instance, you know the exit to this island. A safer way besides killing everyone, I mean.”

“And how do you know this?” asked Killua. That was impossible.

“Do you remember when I told you I remembered who you were?” he said to Kurapika. “The boy who attacked Chrollo on the plane?”

Killua wasn’t surprised. He knew who Kurapika was from the get-go. Gade was so adamant about getting him for trying to hurt his precious leader, after all. He couldn't stop his eyebrow from twitching, however.

“You have something to say, shorty?”

And the one he didn’t want to notice saw it. Great.

Killua smiled darkly at being called short. “The people I was with before, they were working for the developers. I just figured out why they were looking for you all that time, is all.”

“You mean the Assassination Five?” piped up Gon. “By the way, what happened to them? I thoughts you were friends?”

“Do you think everyone you see together are friends? Jeez,” commented Killua with slight annoyance. Yeah right.

Kurapika turned back to Gon, “I remember what you told me about me and the plane, yes.”

“I saw something when you lunged at him.” continued Gon. “He had something in his hand when he was talking to us, a small square box like a rubix cube. When you almost hit him he lost his grip on it and the thing, sort of, disappeared.”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” Gon shrugged. “it just did. And now I think that box had something like all the secrets of the game in it.”

“You’re saying I absorbed them?!”

KIllua chuckled.

“Maybe?” smiled Gon nervously.

“That makes no sense,” Kurapika said worriedly. “I mean, besides being able to absorb an inanimate object, why would Chrollo hold something so obviously important?”

Gon shrugged again. “It's what I saw and how I interpreted it.”

“Wow,” said Killua, turning away from them.

Kurapika turned on him with fire in his stance.

“What are you still doing here? We’ve got the finding our way out part already, so you have nothing more to offer us.”

“You believe him then?” asked Killua calmly, looking at him over his shoulder. “About you knowing all the secrets of the game from some invisible-changing box?”

Kurapika hesitated but nodded his head firmly. “It would make sense with all the dreams I’ve been having ever since coming here.”

Killua noticed something else in his expression, like a flicker of some secret he was keeping from them, and thought about calling him out on it.

Killua sighed instead, too tired to care. “I do really need your help,” he said. “I can’t find Alluka alone. My brother is here to bring me back home without my sister, and if he does that I know he’ll keep me from finding this place again.”

“That sounds like your problem.” Kurapika crossed his arms, glaring.

“Kurapika, no.” Gon said, shuffling toward Killua with a big smile. He was out of it a few minutes before. LIke he’d been thinking about something until now. “If he needs help, we will help him. Besides, we’re already friends.”

Killua gave him a startled look.

Kurapika glared more. “Gon, that's ridiculous to say that about a stranger-”

“But he’s not, is he? Doesn’t he seem familiar to you, like we’ve known him from before the game?”

“No. Not at all.”

Gon looked up at him. “Really? He does to me.”

“This is dumb,” said Killua. “If we’re going to do this, we need to leave now. We’re racing against my brother now, and there’s no time to stand around and talk. We’re going this way.” He started for the next tree.

“Now he’s trying to call the shots,” grumbled Kurapika.

Gon laughed as they followed Killua. Then the tall boy stopped again.

“Hold on, I have to tell you my plan. It may be better than Killua’s blind rush to nowhere.”

“What do you mean by that?” Killua growled, secretly relieved the other had something besides him. He hopped back to their tree.

Kurapika ignored his comment. “I think when that developer came to take me away, he took a shortcut from wherever he came from. Have any of you noticed the wall surrounding the island?”

Killua and Gon looked at each other. “A wall?” asked Gon as they turned in a circle to view it. Killua stared the perimeter of the forest, and saw a white rock appear as if it was already there, cave holes pocketed it’s surface, much like the one he saw Kurapika and Gon exit out of when Gon was looking for Leorio. He blinked.

“Where did that come from?”

“It just, like, popped out of nowhere!” added Gon excitedly.

Kurapika nodded, seemingly confirming himself about something. Killua narrowed his eyes at him.

“It’s our ticket home,” he said.

“That’s preposterous.” Killua started. “Why would the people who _want_ to trap us here put an exit right there for even a dummy to find?”

“Because a dummy would be blinded from seeing it.” Kurapika raised an eyebrow. “Are you a dummy, Killua?”

Killua glared at him. “You know, I don’t have any obligations in keeping you alive right now.”

“You do actually,” Kurapika answered with a smile. “Unless you want my friend to kill you afterward.” Gon wasn’t listening again, still staring at the wall.

“Besides,” Kurapika sighed. “I’m prepared to take care of myself. As I’m sure you are, too. You want to find your sister, right?”

Killua turned away from him. It was true he wanted to save Alluka quickly, but he didn’t need some blond weirdo to tell him that.

“Let's go.” he barked. “To your stupid wall.”

As they were leaving, Kurapika secretly frowned as he lead Killua and Gon to the wall.

The sun wasn’t quite setting, but it was nearing that time.

...

“Who are you?” snarled Kurapika. The bruise on his head throbbed in time with the thrumming of his heart as he watched the man before him. His aura was powerful, but dark, like Gade’s and his friends’ had been. His yellow eyes seemed to glow with it.

“That’s not important right now.” The man answered Kurapika’s question with an easy smile. “ What’s important is for you to know what you have locked inside that brain of yours.”

What the hell? Who was this person?

“And you want to help me?” Kurapika went along with it. “That seems completely fine.”

“It is,” the man answered. “I don’t have much time before I’m found out, but if you agree to a little something for me, I’ll tell you what you’ve been missing.”

Kurapika’s barriers were up.

“You want me to bargain with you? A stranger who could very well be plotting to kill me?”

“That rock might have been hard, but I made sure it didn’t hurt you that bad.”

Kurapika glared at him. The man chuckled.

He was dressed so weirdly, like a clown, but more modern. He wore a half black vest over a pink shirt and white trousers. His blue shoes were heels, but it matched his controlled and calmed look. On his pale face was a star on one cheek and a tear on the other. Weirder than anyone Kurapika had seen before.

“I’m researching something important.” he was still speaking. “Get those other three with you to the wall west from here and go to the short squat building on it’s left. There you’ll see a good friend of mine named Illumi. He’ll tell you the rest.”

Kurapika blinked. “Wait, what?! You make no sense. First of all, what three are you talking about? And second of all, there are no buildings on this island. Just forest and trees.”

“And water, but that’s besides the point. Gon, Killua, and Leorio are who I’m talking about. Including, of course, you. You all need to be there by sundown or it won’t work.”

He clearly didn’t know that Leorio was dead, and Killua was no friend of his. The flash of that white-haired boy running after him and Gon stayed in his mind.

_What was he planning to do..._

“What won’t work?” Kurapika finally managed out, still trying to work out this man in front of him.

He wagged his finger. “Nope.” he chuckled. Kurapika growled. “Now, are you gonna do this?”

Kurapika looked at the sky, realizing it was nearing midnight. “How do I know this isn’t all a bluff? How do I know this isn’t a trap to kill us off?”

“Why would I care to memorize your names if it was?” waved the man. “Besides, all I have is information better known by someone who’d actually use it. It's your choice to take it or not.”

Kurapika thought. “Fine. I’ll tell the others-”

“It’d be best if they didn’t know.” interrupted the man easily.

Kurapika got more suspicious. “And, you’re not gonna tell me why?”

“You’re getting the hang of it, my friend.”

“Ok,” Kurapika tried to calm himself. “Normally I wouldn’t take these kinds of fishy offers at all, but I need to know why I’m the only player who knows more than everyone. I need to know what happened on that plane before I fell.”

“Sorry, not gonna tell you that secret. Chrollo’s rules, but-”

“You’re part of his group then. You’re a developer.”

“Used to be. And Illumi, if you were going to ask that, too. Majitani, the guy you slaughtered was an on the bench kind of member. It was actually relieving for you to kill that giant of stupid so we wouldn’t have to hear his boasts anymore.”

“He wasn’t a developer?” Kurapika asked in surprise. “But, he had the spider on his back-”

“You know that’s just to brand us as part of the troupe, right?” deadpanned the man. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re the original members who killed your precious people.”

Kurapika jerked at that, gasping. Then he lunged at him. “You know about the Kurta! Have you seen them slaughtered too!? Are you part of their massacre!?”

The man disappeared before he could get to him, laughing, and Kurapika stumbled in the spot he vacated. He twisted his body, hearing the taunting laughter of the strange person all around him.

“Nice to know that boy didn’t make you too soft. Those red eyes _are_ really pretty. I can see what Chrollo was thinking about when he decided to take them.”

Kurapika growled.

“You have odd dreams when you lay down to sleep, don’t you?” The man continued in his deep voice. “Dreams about your family dying, and about Chrollo? At least, your last one was, right?”

“If you already know why do you keep asking me!” Kurapika shouted.

“Do you know why you fell in that cave?” asked the man, appearing behind Kurapika. Startled, Kurapika swung behind him, but he disappeared again.

“Fell in what cave?” he breathed. This man was playing with him. But he would soon get him.

“Why Leorio’s of course.” chuckled the man. “When you fainted after yelling at that poor woman.”

“How do you know all of this about me?”

The man just laughed.

Kurapika shouted into the air. “HOW?” _Stop playing with me!_

The man’s lips seemed to be on Kurapika’s ear when he spoke again.

“You had another dream. A secret quickly locked away from you before you could gain the consciousness to feel it.”

Kurapika swung with all his might, this time connecting with flesh. The man chuckled, and swung back, hitting Kurapika across the face so he fell into the dirt.

“You give your word that you will bring your friends to the wall and I’ll tell you about that dream.” his voice said above him, still sounding so close. Kurapika wanted to kill him.

“What if I don’t want to know?” he said seethingly.

“Come, don’t be an idiot, Kurapika.”

All of this seemed so wrong. Kurapika didn’t want to give Gon over for some stupid information...but, what if this was the only opportunity to learn about the dreams that seemed so real in his head? He thought of Chrollo in the dilapidated building with the original members of his group. All of them were working on the Btoom game...it seemed so real. He needed to know what that meant. And about the stuff locked away in his mind.

Kurapika finally gave in. “I give you my word.”

“Pinky swear it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m not.”

Kurapika struggled on his feet, holding out his pinky shakily. The man grinned and wrapped it with his own. The sudden contact made Kurapika suck in his teeth and pull away fast.  “Good choice.” the man said undeterred. “The dream you had was...”

...

Kurapika ran toward the wall with Gon and Killua, his eyes concentrated on the far left. The man said Illumi was standing there, and after a few minutes, he could see him-that was right at the same time Killua stopped in his tracks. They landed in the cover of some branches, shielded from the figure below, but still able to be heard if they raised their voices.

The white-haired boy stared at the man below them, eyes wide and his breathing heavy.

“Killua?”

“He’s there. Illumi...” he whispered. “I can’t continue.”

Kurapika began to panic. “Killua, this is the only way to get home-”

“I still have to find my sister-you both said you’d help me. I thought we were just checking the exit out.”

“Look, we can’t just-”

“Kurapika?” said Gon. He was giving him a quizzical look. “You weren’t really planning to go through there without his sister were you?”

Kurapika stared. “N-no, I was...”

“You were what?” Killua snapped. “Because it sounds to me like you’re lying.”

“I had a dream.” Kurapika blurted.

Silence, then Killua made a disgusted sound. “Ugh, does this guy get even weirder? Who cares what you had?”

“You’ll care if the dreams link to our reality.” Kurapika crossed his arms.

Gon made a strange face. “What do you mean?”

“You’re really entertaining this right now?” Killua looked over at Gon with some amusement.

Fortunately for Kurapika, Gon ignored him. “I had a dream earlier in the game too,” continued Kurapika. “but this one holds something...more.”

“Ooh, he just keeps stacking the suspense,” commented Killua.

“Will you shut up!?” Kurapika shouted at Killua. He was tired of the little guy digging at him all the time.

Unfortunately, he was too loud.

Illumi turned his head then, looking toward them. He saw Killua as the shorter boy tried to move deeper into the darkness the trees offered them. His dark eyes widened a little.

“Killua.” He said, his voice loud across the area between them.

“Dammit.” Killua bit, straightening again with a sudden calm look on his face. Although if one looked closely his nervousness was apparent. Kurapika looked between them, surprised. Is he... _scared of him!?_

Then Illumi noticed Kurapika. “Thank you for bringing them here. I was a little doubtful when Hisoka told me you’d be coming, but I guess I was concerned for nothing. You came super early actually.”

Kurapika frowned.

_I didn’t think you’d be here right now._

Gon and Killua turned on him. “What?” they said together.

Kurapika wouldn’t look at them. “If I didn’t come you would just hunt us down.”

“True.”

“What do you want with us!?” Gon yelled down at him. He was shaking, angry. At Kurapika? Or at Illumi?

Illumi blinked “Oh you. We met before not too long ago. You never put that tracking bim on him did you?”

Killua was startled but didn’t look surprised. He looked sick. “Even if he did and you found me I still wouldn’t go with you.” he said to his brother. “You’d have to bring Alluka with us too.”

Illumi looked slightly annoyed. “I didn’t put him here just to bring him back. But you, I can’t leave you here.”

“Because you and the developers are planning to blow this place up.” Kurapika put in bitterly. The others turn on him fast. “Huh?” Killua said.

Kurapika took a deep breath, eyes focused on Illumi.

“They’re being found out by the outside world. I’m guessing someone from the inside found out a way to contact someone-and even showed them proof of what’s happening, or the outside world found out somehow by themselves.” Illumi looked at him steadily. “Hisoka.” he said.

Kurapika nodded. “He’s not completely on your side apparently.”

Illumi just shrugged. “He did what he had to do to move this plan forward. I cannot write him off for that. I would do the same to get what I want after all.” He was looking at Killua as he said that.

Killua gritted his teeth and looked away sharply. “Alluka...” he whispered shakily.

“The plan,” Kurapika said sharply down at him. “What is it? We won’t move forward if you don’t tell us what this is about.”

“Do you know about the chimera ants, Kurapika?” asked a different voice. It sounded distressingly familiar. Kurapika’s eyes went red on its own accord, and he saw him in his mind come to life beside Illumi. Then he did. Chrollo walked out of a near cave and stood beside Illumi, smiling casually up at them.

At Kurapika.

“You...”

“The person who attempted an assassination attempt on me. Good Afternoon.”

“YOU BASTARD!” Kurapika started to dart at him but was held back by his friends.

“Stop, Kurapika, he’s too strong!”

“Calm down and feel his nen, you dope!”

Kurapika did for a moment and prickled when Chrollo’s evil aura filled his mind. It was too unreal. Times Gon, Killua, and Illumi. Maybe even himself.

_No one can have power that strong..._

Chrollo watched his look of utter disbelief with amusement, then nodded to their right.

Hisoka came out of the trees, as did a bunch of other strong nen users Kurapika didn’t know. But they all had one thing in common. The spiders he knew connected them all together.

“This was a trap...Kurapika, you lead us into a trap!” exclaimed Gon.

Chrollo raised his arms then, his eyes on Kurapika never wavering. “How about we take this somewhere else, hm?”


End file.
